In addition to being a private violin teacher and having a degree in music from USC, Alecia started writing music-related articles and product reviews six years ago and has enjoyed this experience greatly. She likes to learn new instruments and write new compositions in her free time.
Marcus has a vast experience in digital audio and sound design. Thanks to his knowledge, he actively helps musicians with technical problems, improving their audio quality and promoting their tracks so that thousands of listeners can enjoy really good music.
Last updated: August 27, 2024
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Whether you are just setting out on your musical journey or you’re a seasoned musician, the best electric grand piano can give you the sounding and feeling of an acoustic version and replicate concert piano sound. Digital grand pianos offer an advantage in terms of cost, size and portability, functions and ease of maintenance over their acoustic cousins. They appeal to a broad range of musicians and produce a wide range of sounds.
We’re going to look at things which will affect your playing experience, such as key types, all-important polyphony, and navigation of menus and controls. We’ll consider costs, and we’ll find a piano for all budgets out there – whether you want a bunch of effects and instrument voices or not. Finding the best digital grand piano for your needs is all about knowing what technical aspects these instruments present, and selecting what you will want the piano to do. In your review section, we’ve looked at customer feedback and collated the most important properties of each model.
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When you are looking to find the best digital grand piano, it might be difficult to make a choice – but don’t worry, our detailed reviews of each product and buying guide are going to help to cut through the haze of information! Our research will help you to understand the features, limitations, and attributes of digital pianos in general. Read on, and we’re sure you’ll be closer to finding the piano of your dreams!
"If you are dreaming of finding the best digital grand piano with an authentic old acoustic piano appearance and perfect sound, then this is your choice."
"This model offers you the most incredible quality of the sound with this 6-speaker stereo system while providing you with a feeling of playing the real piano due to hammer-action keys."
"When you want to take your digital grand piano to the concert hall or musical lessons, it can be uncomfortable or even impossible. The opposite applies to this model, which has perfect sound as well."
"For a beginner looking for a digital grand piano, we recommend you this budget-friendly instrument that includes Yamaha Education Suite function to progress in no time."
More features: comes with Alfred’s Basic Adult Piano Coursebook, bench, stereo headphones, USB cable, assembly guide, and instruction manual, assembly tools, 130+ instrument voices, MIDI port, records up to 16 tracks, Bluetooth
The first thing that you will notice about the Suzuki Digital Piano
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Is the fact that it’s presented in a beautiful high gloss ebony finish does much to pay tribute to the grand old acoustic pianos of the past? This model comes complete with a retracting key cover, and it really looks the part.
You get a lovely 88-key weighted keyboard with FATAR hammer action keys, and the Suzuki Digital Piano looks to put the feel of an acoustic piano on your fingertips. You may even forget that your instrument is electronic because the polyphony capability on this piano is an impressive 64 tones. The Suzuki Digital Piano is a fantastic option with bright and rich sound.
The Bluetooth function provides connectivity allowing you to stream your compositions and practice sessions to your favorite devices. There’s also a USB so you can use laptops, smartphones, or tablets with this piano. It’s going to be hard to beat this model because you get a great package with accessories too.
The next piano on our list is the Kurzweil KAG100. Thus is an excellent electronic grand piano with an 88-key board featuring a fully-weighted action. One of the nicest features here is that the keys are adjustable for touch sensitivity.
The Kurzweil KAG100 gives you 200 astounding in-built presets featuring pianos, electric pianos, organs and other orchestral instruments – designed to inspire and promote creativity and composition. If you’re not the most technically minded musician and just want to get on with playing, the controls are simple, intuitive and responsive.
The Kurzweil KAG100 allows you to record two tracks at a time, so you’ll be able to compare different versions of the same tune if you are practicing, or even if you’re writing music. The effects are great on this piano, and you get eight reverb options, as well as eight chorus modes. The polyphony number is 64, and the tones are just impressive. Moreover, there are many sound effects and the learning aids on this piano. It’s another great all-rounder.
More features: 174 voices with 128 General MIDI sounds for accompaniment, 6-speaker stereo sound system, 120 styles in various genres for real-time playback, Mod/FX feature gives rotary effects on organs and vibrato on electric pianos, Bluetooth, comes with bench
Sitting right in the middle of our best five digital grand pianos is the Williams Symphony Grand Digital Piano, and we’re moving up the range in terms of polyphony here because this model gives 128 astounding simultaneous tones, so it will sound great in any room or space.
The finish here is again lovely gloss ebony, and it gives the Williams Symphony Grand Digital Piano an elegant look.
The keyboard features 88 fully graded keys, which operate with a realistic hammer-action movement. The controls interface is friendly and functional. The range of effects is marvelous, and you get 174 voices, which will enable you to get very creative indeed.
Williams has fitted a very impressive 6-speaker stereo sound system to this model, and you will be sure to please the listeners with the quality of the sound. Not the most remarkable package in our list, but this is gorgeous and very usable piano.
More features: CF Sound Engine, 205 presets, 151 voices + 15 Drum/SFX Kits + 388 XglitePure, comes with bench, sustain pedal, dust cover, FastTrack Keyboard 1 DVD & Focus on Piano – A Concise Approach to Learning & Playing (with CD)
We’re taking a trip into the realm of the portable pianos now, and the first on our list is the excellent Yamaha DGX-660. What will catch your eye first here is that, despite its compact nature, the Yamaha DGX-660 has the highest rating for polyphony on this list, at 192. That’s going to result in a rich, acoustic tone and the beautiful sounding of music.
The Yamaha DGX-660 has 88 Grand Hammer Standard keys with a very realistic playing action and wonderful feedback to the fingers, which varies depending on how hard you press them.
The beautiful Yamaha score screen can display the music notation of MIDI songs, giving an old-school bouncing ball effect and easy play-along capability.
You also can select the sounding from a variety of pianos and adjust the acoustic settings with the Piano Room according to your preferences.
The Yamaha DGX-660 comes as a kit and includes a full-size bench, a dust cover, and learning DVDs. All around, this is a fine example of a piano package, and the Yamaha DGX-660 deserves to be mentioned on our list.
The Yamaha DGX670B makes it onto our list of the five best digital piano options because it’s a great budget piano and it’s also got some features that will aid the student when they’re beginning to learn to play.
What you get here is 88 Graded Soft Touch keys, although they are not weighted and won’t be as realistic as the other pianos on this list. A six-track sequencer allows you to listen back to recordings of your music and practice, and there’s a keyboard stand included with this model, so you’ll be ready to play.
The polyphony here has 32 tones, and for a beginner, that’s going to be more than enough to learn. A big plus here is the Yamaha Education Suite feature, which structures your learning experience in various ways.
You get three keyboard lessons for each hand and lesson grading, which monitors you at each stage of a set learning pattern. There’s also a chord dictionary, which shows you exactly how to shape chords and displays everything on the LCD screen. The Yamaha DGX670B is a very decent student piano for not too many dollars.
Buying a digital grand piano can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be so. Digital instruments are complicated and advanced pieces of equipment, but you can cut through the mystery with our handy buying guide. It is designed to make it easier for you to find the best digital grand piano for your own needs. Here, we’ll look at the features you need to be aware of when choosing the best digital piano for yourself.
Picking the best digital grand piano
There is no concrete formula for choosing the right digital grand piano, and your decision will be affected by many factors, which will all be defined by your own unique needs. Whether you are an experienced musician or a novice, it’s important to be realistic about what you expect and want from your instrument. There is a list of the features that you will benefit the most, so keep this in mind while selecting the best digital grand piano.
Number of polyphony notes
Polyphony is all about the quality of sound you can expect from your new digital grand piano. It relates to how many tones your new instrument will be able to produce simultaneously and therefore influences the depth and richness of each chord and note quite substantially.
Acoustic versions of grand pianos can produce an unimaginable range of simultaneous tones, and a good digital piano will be able to mimic that.
It is also essential to remember that you need a higher polyphony number if you are using pedals, so every note you play would have a striking sound.
Keyboard
Digital pianos come with several main types of keys. In this review and guide, we’ll be mostly concerned with weighted, hammer action, and grand hammer standard-type keyboards. The principles behind a weighted keyboard are relatively simple.
Weighted keys are designed to feel more like a traditional piano keyboard, and your fingers get some resistance when you play, exactly like on an acoustic piano with its hammers and mechanical connections.
Some weighted piano keyboards take the concept a bit further and vary the weight of each key. This goes even closer to mimicking the feel of a traditional piano keyboard.
An unweighted keyboard won’t feel anything like playing an acoustic piano, but some models have a sensor which gauges how hard or soft you push the keys. While it’s not absolutely necessary to have weighted keys, it’s advisable because it enables you to move between playing digital and acoustic pianos pretty effortlessly.
Hammer action keyboards strive to make the playing experience even more traditional, going so far as to reproduce some of the mechanical aspects of an acoustic piano. This gives a very good replication of the feel of an acoustic version.
Grand Hammer Standard is as close as digital pianos get to the traditional piano and it’s usually the most expensive of all of the keyboard setups. Grand Hammer Standard keyboards use springs that are finely engineered to replicate the feel of an acoustic keyboard.
Display
Displays come in all types and sizes, but the most amazing ones all have one thing in common – they provide an excellent interface between instrument and musician.
If you’re a beginner or novice, make sure to look out for teaching aids built into the interface and display. Most times, a simple screen that conveys information clearly is the best display.
With most LCD screens, you will be able to monitor notes and play the MIDI files, record tracks, adjust the settings and even change the sound of your grand piano and add effects.
Design
Digital grand pianos are contemporary versions of their traditional ancestors, and you will find that the best manufacturers borrow all that is outstanding and beautiful from older versions, bringing them bang up to date with the modern-day.
Digital pianos reflect the grandeur of acoustic versions and have all of the benefits of digital technology to make them more relevant and of better value. You will need to be careful to choose the place for your digital grand piano because they tend to be bigger compared to electronic keyboards, but at the same time far smaller compared to their acoustic brothers.
Weight
Weight is a great advantage when you want to get the richness of the sound and tone of an acoustic grand piano, but you opt to go digital. Acoustic grand pianos weigh a formidable amount, and they are incredibly difficult to both move and accommodate.
Not only that but each time you move an acoustic piano, you’ll need to retune it. Digital pianos weigh considerably less than their acoustic counterparts, and you will never have to tune one. The best baby digital grand piano can give you all the sounds of an acoustic instrument, without the stress when it comes to moving it.
Sound effects
It’s a good idea to keep an eye out for how many and which types of musical effects are included with the different digital pianos that you are considering. It’s not only about fun, but they also significantly increase the tonal range of a digital instrument while expanding the opportunity to improvise with the instrument.
There is a broad range of digital grand pianos out there and all come with different amounts of effects.
The chances are that if you are a professional musician or a serious hobbyist, you will want to employ a decent selection of effects when you are playing or composing. The more built-in effects you have, the fewer leads and pedals will need to buy or worry about.
If you are just starting out learning the piano, you’ll likely want more effects later on down the line. Overall, the effects make your piano more usable and enjoyable, and longer-term, they’ll keep the piano relevant to your ability and needs.
Recording feature
Recording capabilities vary widely on different digital pianos, and you’ll need to check what options your selected instrument offers. Connectivity will be a factor in your decision depending on how you intend to play back recordings, so look out for specifications such as ports (MIDI and USB types), as well as wireless connectivity and types.
Number of instrument voices
Instrument voices are just a great way to keep your piano playing or learning experience interesting and fun. Digital pianos have some massive advantages over their traditional acoustic counterparts, and instrument voices might be one of the biggest.
This feature allows your digital grand piano to mimic the sound and tones of specific grand piano types. Some digital versions like the Kurzweil KAG100 will even allow you to replicate the sound of organs. What you get with instrument voices is essentially several instruments in one compact, digital piano. To achieve the best sound with your digital grand piano, you might want to check the voices that your instrument has.
Portability
Portability is a critical buying factor if you are a musician who intends to take your piano out for performing or gigging. Weight and size are also a massive consideration for students who will wish to move the piano around to practice, and it can matter a lot when you don’t have much space at home to permanently site your piano, or you need it to be compact enough to fit up against a wall.
Both of the Yamaha pianos in our review section offer the best qualities when it comes to portability. The Yamaha DGX670B and the Yamaha DGX-660 don’t look to replicate the looks of an acoustic grand piano – just the tone and sound. You’ll notice they weigh in at under a third of the amount of the larger options on our list. As with all factors, prioritize portability if it matters more to you than other considerations.
Accessories kit
Different digital grand pianos come with a variety of included extras, and this can be an excellent place to start looking – especially if you are on a particularly tight budget. You will need a whole range of accessories when you start using your new piano.
If you want to go out and buy them all, you will need to have some extra budget to do so. Many pianos come in a package, which includes much or all of the stuff you will need to get started, just like the Artesia Digital Grand Piano AG-40. Look out for pianos that include things like benches, stands, polishing cloths, learning books and materials, and pedals.
Prices
As with everything out there, prices for digital grand pianos vary, and it’s essential to set a budget before you begin to look around. There is a number of manufacturers of these pianos on the market, so setting the price range will help you significantly.
Our budget piano on this list is the very reasonable Yamaha DGX670B, coming in at only $500 – however, you may not get some features when the price falls, and it’s important to be realistic about what to expect.
On the other hand, the best sounding piano, Williams Symphony Grand Digital Piano, costs around $2100. Nevertheless, it will definitely satisfy you with the premium quality and richness of tones.
Picking a digital piano when you are starting out on your own musical journey is not merely permitted, it can be argued it’s advisable. An acoustic piano is a massive investment when you are a beginner, not just in terms of money but also in terms of the space you would need to allocate and the difficulty of getting it there. Not only that, but digital instruments offer much that an acoustic version cannot. Effects, connectivity to devices, the ability to record and playback your efforts – the list is almost endless.
Portability is a significant advantage to buying a digital instrument. Even if you get a heavy digital grand piano, it is still easier to move than an acoustic one. You can opt for a smaller digital instrument but it’s likely your range will be limited by a smaller keyboard, and you will get far more realistic playing experience and sound with a digital grand piano.
Many factors will affect the way you go about choosing your own digital grand piano. While polyphony is an important consideration in the way the piano will sound, it is not the only thing you will need to think about when you select your instrument.
Polyphony will affect the richness of the tone your piano is capable of producing, but the range of sound and number of octaves available will define what you will be able to play as well. Instrument voices can completely change the output of the piano, and the more voices your piano has, the wider the range of sounds you’ll be able to make.
Effects such as reverb and delay also allow you to be creative when you are looking to produce different tones and sounds. Almost every aspect of a digital piano is about making different sounds and tones, so take everything into account.
Pay careful attention to the manufacturer’s guidelines for the specific piano that you buy and make sure to clean only as instructed. Most digital pianos will require a certain amount of cleaning to keep them performing optimally. Moreover, to make sure that the sound and tone of the instrument are perfect.
The environment in which you use your piano will, as with most other household items, define how often you need to clean it to a certain extent. Pets, dust, and other factors will affect how quickly the piano becomes dirty, and it’s important to take factors such as these into account when you adhere to the guidelines.
Our Verdict
That was our comprehensive guide to buying a digital grand piano, and we hope you’ve found it helpful. There are some fantastic pianos on our list, but the one that really stood out and made it to first place was the excellent Artesia Digital Grand Piano AG-40. This piano combines the tone and feel of an acoustic grand piano with the technical wizardry and convenience of an electronic instrument.
In second place on our top five best digital grand pianos was the fantastic Kurzweil KAG100, which is another instrument that features everything many people will want from their piano. Style, looks, and supreme playability will make this instrument a firm favorite with many musicians.
If the top two digital pianos on our list don’t tickle your fancy, then our third-place pick certainly might get you tickling the ivories. The Williams Symphony Grand Digital Piano just missed out on the top two spots here, but it was in the astonishing company. We loved the marvelous sounding of this instrument and the elegant design it has.
We hope our article helped you to make your choice and you can enjoy the magical tones of the best digital grand piano!