Yamaha YDP-144 Review | Compact Home Digital Piano

 

 Today, we're reviewing one of the most popular home digital pianos on the market as we look at Yamaha Arius YDP-144. This is an extremely popular and affordable digital piano - it's not an overstatement to say that there are many thousands of these units across the world in people's homes, teaching studios and music schools.

Let's get into our Yamaha YDP-144 review.

 

Yamaha YDP-144 - Opening Thoughts

The Yamaha Arius home piano series has been immensely popular for years now. The YDP-144b is the second model in the lineup of console pianos, with the more basic YDP-103 serving as the entry point. It's of course an 88-key digital piano, as all of the Arius models are.

But when it comes to popularity, nothing even comes close to the YDP-144 as it occupies that sweet spot in the mid-range where the price isn't too high, but you're still able to get a quality instrument that represents a meaningful upgrade for the aspiring pianist from entry-level models like the YDP-103.

The YDP-144 competes head-to-head with instruments such as the Kawai KDP75 and KDP120, the Roland RP102 and the Casio PX-870.

The YDP-144 is the most popular of the bunch, but we're going to try and determine if that's truly deserved, or the result of some savvy marketing and brand recognition. Let's start by checking out the sound engine.

 

Yamaha CFX Concert Grand Piano Sound

The YDP-144 is using the Yamaha CFX sample for the main acoustic piano sound. This is a very high-quality recording of the CFX Concert Grand piano, and as such, is a very high-quality sound engine.

The sound is complex, with a very lovely singing quality as well. The tonal profile is very stable and uniform, which some folks will love, though others will prefer a tone that is more varied depending on the volume level and dynamic and output.

Anybody who's been lucky enough to play a real concert grand CFX knows that that is certainly a finely crafted instrument, so it's great to see how well Yamaha has recreated the concert grand sound here.

In terms of the stereo speaker system, the YDP-144 has a pair of 8-watt speakers. That's more or less enough power for somebody playing in a relatively small room just for personal use, though it's interesting to note that both the Kawai KDP-120 and Casio PX-870  have a lot more power with 40-watt speaker systems.

It comes with 192 notes of polyphony which is plenty for personal playing. And even if you're going to layer up one or two tracks of playback from a recording or MIDI track, there's no issue with 192 notes of polyphony.

Another cool sound-related feature we need to mention is the "Piano Room,". There are two different samples that you can choose from, the "CFX Grand," or the "Pop Grand," which is probably a C7.

For each one of those samples, you can apply a different kind of environmental effect, which is really just a reverb. There's "Concert Hall", "Chamber" and "Club", each with its own distinct reverb algorithm.

You've also got a number of other options to customize the piano experience as well via the Smart Pianist App, which is great. You can edit things like Damper Resonance, individual key settings, touch curve, volume and tuning for each individual key, which is actually a fairly advanced feature for an instrument like this.

There's also an auto EQ effect, referred to as Intelligent Acoustic Control, which automatically activates, as well as the Stereophonic Optimizer.

Going through the rest of the sounds, we also start to see some really nice stuff, the electric pianos particularly. There's also Harpsichord, Vibraphone and Pipe Organ, with 10 total sounds.

Overall, the sound is producing a really authentic playing experience, even if the speakers are somewhat underpowered.

 

Graded Hammer Standard Piano Action

The YDP-144 features Yamaha's GHS hammer action, which is short for Graded Hammer Standard. If people have watched or read some of our other reviews, you'll know that we think the GHS keyboard action has some notable weaknesses, but that we still think it's a serviceable action.

Since this is the case, it's one of those actions that's probably best to just play yourself in person so you can make those determinations on a personal level. Piano touch preference can be quite subjective.

Let's start with the positives: it's physically very solid with little give to it, so for a lot of intricate styles of playing, it works quite well.

We also happen to really like the feel of the keybed. It's not super hard nor is it super soft and instead sits right in the middle of how Kawai and Roland's actions feel, with Kawai's having a softer keybed and Roland having a harder one.

Now to some of the drawbacks. For one, the GHS is still using a dual sensor, whereas most of the options in the class have now incorporated triple sensors for more accurate dynamic output and better touch sensitivity.

There's also no texture on the top of the white key and instead just a polished white key surface. As a result, over time, we've found that moisture builds up which ends up pulling the pads back from your fingernails. Fortunately, matte black key tops prevent this from happening on the black keys.

For beginners, hobbyists and people who are more finesse players or earlier classical players, getting into pop or Chopin will probably like this action. For people who kind of attack the keyboard with a bit more of a heavy feel with their finger technique, this is gonna maybe feel a bit too stiff, and you may actually wind up wearing the action out a bit earlier than you were hoping.

 

Features/Connectivity

The 144 comes with its own matching cabinet which is very nicely built, making it an attractive instrument from an aesthetic perspective. Also included is a triple pedal with a sustain pedal (capable of half pedaling), sostenuto and soft.

It comes in both a default Rosewood finish, as well as a Black Walnut.

In terms of connectivity, we've got a USB port, and two headphone jacks but no discrete quarter-inch audio out., so you will have to use one of the headphone jacks if you need more power.

Features include a 2-track song recorder, metronome, built-in music books and things like Transpose, Tuning, Layer and Duo mode.

 

Closing Thoughts

You can't go wrong with the YDP-144. It's a well-built, solid instrument that's going to be pretty satisfying to most people.

While we think there are several other options in the category delivering better value, the YDP-144 is still going to get the job done, and of course, the Yamaha name certainly provides a great measure of comfort, regardless of specific product.

Shop Digital Pianos.

The post Yamaha YDP-144 Review | Compact Home Digital Piano first appeared on Merriam Pianos

2359 Bristol Cir #200, Oakville, ON L6H 6P8

merriammusic.com

(905) 829-2020

Yamaha YDP 144 vs Casio PX 870 | Digital Piano Comparison & Review

 

 The under $2,000 CAD home digital piano market is one of the most competitive in the digital piano industry, hands down. Today, we’re going to compare two of the best-selling and highest-reviewed digital pianos with weighted keys in the category with the Yamaha YDP 144 vs Casio PX 870.

The Yamaha Arius and Casio Privia are two lines that really don't typically intersect, with the exception of these two models. The YDP-144 digital piano is closer to the entry point of the Arius line, while the PX-870 is the top model available in the Privia lineup.

But these two digital console pianos compare very well, both in terms of their overall offering, and price point, making both a common choice among beginners just getting into music and more advanced players seeking a practice instrument. Let’s get into it.

 

Yamaha YDP 144 vs Casio PX 870 - Brand & Series Overview

It’s important to note right away that the Yamaha Arius YDP-144 has been on the market longer than the Casio PX 870. As a slightly older product, it’s not really fair to expect the YDP-144 to keep up with the PX-870 in every single regard given their similar price point.

Technology progresses very quickly, and it's no different in the digital piano space than it is in the smartphone space for example. Just like it wouldn’t be a fair fight to compare a smartphone from 2017 to one from 2019, the same logic applies to digital pianos.

That said, this comparison really is unavoidable given that these are current models that happened to be positioned against one another, along with offerings from Roland, Kawai, Korg and some smaller manufacturers.

Casio has had a pretty strong selection of offerings in the sub $1,000 part of the market for a while now, but they obviously made a decision at the corporate level a few years ago to go after a bigger piece of the pie - models released over the past few years have spoken to a tightening competition in the over $1,000 home digital piano category where normally Yamaha, Roland, and Kawai have been the dominant brands.

The PX-870 is one of those models that has been increasing in visibility and truly emerged as a viable option in this competitive market space.

The YDP-144 is one of the entry points into the Arius line of Yamaha digital pianos before moving up to the more advanced and costly YDP-164 and YDP-184.

With that little bit of context out of the way, let’s begin by comparing the sound engines of these home pianos.

 

YDP-144 vs PX-870 - Digital Piano Sound Comparison

A quick side-by-side comparison of the default acoustic piano patches on these two pianos reveals that the manufacturers have gone for very different tonal profiles. Sometimes when you compare similarly priced competing instruments from different manufacturers, you don’t necessarily hear a huge difference. In this case, these pianos really do sound quite different.

The YDP-144 has quite a throaty sound with more of an emphasis in the upper mid-range and tends to have a non-conventional EQ curve. The PX-870 on the other hand has that traditional EQ curve with some bass and treble enhancement, while the throaty mid-range portion is somewhat squished.

There’s no right or wrong approach here, but given the stark difference, odds are you will have a preference between the different piano sounds here.

Into specifics about the sound engines themselves, the YDP-144 is equipped with the Yamaha CFX Concert grand piano sample. Yamaha doesn’t disclose how many sample layers have gone into the engine, but our understanding is that this isn’t an 88-note individually sampled tone, meaning there is some stretching going on. They’ve synthesized some other acoustic effects like damper resonance and key-off resonance, which are then added to the sample.

The sound can be manipulated to a certain extent with the Yamaha Smart Pianist App as you can adjust things such as the reverb simulator and some other parameters. Other sound-related features include Yamaha’s Intelligent Acoustic Control and Stereophonic Optimizer.

Over on the PX 870, there’s also a companion app - the Casio Chordana Play App for piano - which performs a similar function.

An interesting thing Casio has done with the PX870 includes a set of tone ports which essentially gives your ear a direct line to the back of the speaker. And in this case, there’s a powerful set of 20-watt amplifiers that are pushing that piano tone for 40 watts of power, contrasted with a 16-watt speaker system on the YDP-144.

That’s a substantial difference in the amount of power and thus in the depth of sound, these pianos are capable of. The YDP-144 has a set of tone ports too, but the effect is less dramatic given the less powerful amplifiers.

Beyond the difference of the power itself, we’re also hearing a difference in the complexity of the samples as well, and this is evidenced by the fact that the 870’s Multi-Dimensional Morphing AiR Sound Source sample is using up 3x more memory than the YDP-144’s CFX sample.

Further evidence of this increased processing power is the polyphony - the YDP-144 has a very solid 192 notes of polyphony, while the PX-870 has an even better 256-note polyphony count. 192 notes is going to be sufficient for just about everyone, so this isn’t the most important spec comparison, it just simply attests to the extra power possessed by the PX-870.

In terms of the total number of sound presets, the YDP-144 has 10 in total, while the PX-870 has 19. The sounds are very solid across the board on both pianos (especially the YDP-144’s electric pianos), though an area where the PX-870 could use some improvement has to do with the dynamics of the different patches - they vary widely which can be jarring, so some uniformity there would be welcome.

That concludes our discussion on sound. As we stated at the outset, thanks in part to being a newer instrument, the PX-870 wins the sound battle in a number of key specifications, on paper at least. The caveat is though, at the end of the day, these two manufacturers have approached sound in fundamentally different ways, so you should really try to play to see which approach you connect with more.

 

Digital Piano Action Comparison - Tri-Sensor vs GHS

The action comparison between these two instruments plays out in a similar way as the sound comparison - both are solid, but we are comparing older technology with Yamaha’s Graded Hammer Standard (GHS) action versus Casio’s newer Tri-Sensor Scaled Hammer Action Keyboard II.

The 870’s Tri-Sensor action has a nice texture on the ebony and ivory keys which gives the key surfaces a really nice level of glide. It’s also equipped with a triple sensor which means the MIDI output is going to be more accurate than a dual sensor with better touch sensitivity, and triple sensors are by no means a given at this price point.

Not everyone is going to derive value from the triple sensor. In fact, beginners probably won’t notice a difference at all. But anyone doing some studio triggering, or especially folks getting into advanced classical music will absolutely appreciate the benefits of a triple sensor. There is no escapement like on a real piano, with only Roland’s PHA4 action offering that feature in the price range.

The YDP-144’s GHS action has a matte texture on the black key tops which is nice, but the white keys have a glossy finish that can be too grippy during longer playing sessions, and it’s also equipped with a less advanced dual sensor.

Besides these differences, these keys feel quite similar, especially in terms of the weighting and the response. This is pretty remarkable in that even 5 or so years ago, it’s hard to imagine anyone arguing that a Casio action could be on par with a Yamaha action, let alone superior, but here we are.

The repetition speed on both actions is good, if not at the top of the class where we would argue actions from Roland and Kawai sit.

So again, we have a situation where the PX-870 wins the on-paper battle, but there’s no doubt that we’re looking at two high-quality actions capable of producing an enjoyable playing experience.

 

Additional Features & Connectivity - USB/MIDI

Since we’re discussing a couple of console-based digital pianos here, both of these musical instruments come with integrated stands and triple pedal systems with a sustain pedal, sostenuto pedal and soft pedal. The PX-870 has more of a slim, contemporary look while the YDP-144 comes to the table with a more traditional upright piano aesthetic.

Both have built-in dust covers, and you should definitely close the covers when your piano isn’t in use to prevent dust from getting into the action and therefore prolonging the life of your piano. Both pianos are available in Black and White, while the YDP-144 is also available in Rosewood.

In terms of the connectivity ports, both pianos have two stereo quarter-inch headphone jacks, though no discreet audio outputs, so you will have to use one of these headphone ports with an adapter if you need more juice.

Neither piano has Bluetooth of any kind, unfortunately, so if you want to get connected to an iOS iPad or Android device, you will need to use the USB port with a cable. Both pianos have both USB Type A and B.

Standard features like a metronome a present on both, as well as some built-in piano songs.

 

Closing Thoughts

So what do we have here at the end of the day? Well, we can confidently say that we have two excellent models here bringing excellent value to the market with very good warranty coverage. The price points are very similar, and while they’re targeted at the same end user, they’re actually quite different musically.

If you like Yamaha as a brand and are attracted to the Yamaha sound, there’s not a lot to take issue with as far as what the YDP-144 has to offer - the tone is classic Yamaha and the action is solid.

If you’re not attached to Yamaha necessarily, the PX-870 has the edge in a few areas, such as a more complex sample, a much more powerful amplifier, a higher polyphony count and more onboard sounds.

The action battle also goes to the PX-870 in terms of the specs, though of course, some folks will prefer the GHS action simply due to personal preference.

We’ve got two great pianos here worth their popularity and rave reviews, both of which should be considered should you be shopping for a piano in this category.

Thanks for reading!

The post Yamaha YDP 144 vs Casio PX 870 | Digital Piano Comparison & Review first appeared on Merriam Pianos

2359 Bristol Cir #200, Oakville, ON L6H 6P8

merriammusic.com

(905) 829-2020