Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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109 of 111 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great keyboard for almost everyone, November 21, 2002
Yamaha has made an excellent product, here.I will grant, right away, that if you compare the sound and feel of this keyboard to a REAL piano or even a keyboard that costs two or three times as much, you will be disappointed. HOWEVER, given that the price point on this item is what it is, there's lots to be excited about. The keys are weighted -- not as heavily as a real piano, but they feel MUCH meatier than the lower-end models in this product line (the DGX202 and the DGX300). The fact that the keys are not fully weighted cost the keyboard a half of a star on my rating. The grand piano voice is outstanding. I'm sure you would be able to tell the difference between it and a real grand piano, but it is still an excellent sound. The piano voice is the most important, naturally, but there are other voices that are very rich sounding as well - there's a great electric piano, some good synth sounds, an amazing flute, and even some good organs (though still nothing quite like a B3). The sequencing function seems very intuitive and adequate, though I'm sure you have more options if you get Yamaha's XG Works software (for an extra cost) and a MIDI connection to your PC. This cost the keyboard the other half-star that brought it down from from 5 stars to 4. The bottom line is this -- if you have lots more money to spend than this item costs, it's worth it to check out higher-priced models and compare them to the DGX500, but if you've only got enough to afford the DGX500, I don't believe you'll be disappointed in this keyboard at all. I'm not.
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74 of 74 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent keyboard with a few minor flaws, February 11, 2003
I had been looking for a piano for about 17 months when I ran across this model, purely by chance, at my local electronics store. I'd been rather frustrated trying to find a keyboard that approximated the look and feel of a real piano and had all 88 keys on it. A real piano for me was out of the question, since I live in an upstairs unit (no elevator) with a tight corner turn to get into the door, and neither me nor my wife could move something so large.I tell you that you will not get a better deal anywhere than what this model has to offer. Not only does this model have all 88 keys, but the piano sound quality is absolutely outstanding. The rest of the voices...drums, winds, electronic piano, and rhythm sequences (plus hundreds more), all sound realistic enough to provide an excellent mix of sounds for recording. I have no trouble with the various other functions I discovered while playing with this keyboard...chord lessons, music dictionary, rhythm setting, or music database activation. This is an absolutely MARVELOUS keyboard for the price and is great whether you are a beginner just learning or an advanced synth player. Now the reason it has 4 stars instead of 5. First, I must agree with the reviews I see here that the keys are not as weighted as they could be. Second, the main piano sound, although excellent, is just a bit too soft. I found I had to turn the volume up to 3/4 of max to hear a good semblance of a grand piano sound. This wouldn't be a problem, except the auto-accompaniment will drown out the piano melody if you turn it on, and adjusting the accompaniment volume is a minor pain because it reverts back to its default setting when you turn the unit off. Finally, the pedal included with this keyboard tends to go slightly awry at times because it is not like your typical piano pedal. When I tried to use it, my foot slipped off it occasionally...although that might be because I have a carpet and not a hard floor where the pedal is. However, buying an extra speaker and a new piano pedal, both readily available from Yamaha, corrected both problems amazingly well. Once I added those, I had as close to a perfect instrument as you could ever hope to have. Now if only I could weight those keys somehow... Overall, a unit I highly recommend and an excellent buy.
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38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great value, April 15, 2003
I was looking for something I could put in my little apartment and be able to move if and when I had to, and I could afford. My girlfriend/roommate was a music major, and thus very picky about the way an instrument feels and sounds. We had our musical choices narrowed down to this keyboard and a digital piano. After playing this instrument in the store, we decided that for the money, you just can't beat it.
This unit runs about half the price of a digital keyboard, and while I agree that the weighting of the keys is not very significant (hence 4 stars out of 5), the sound I think is outstanding. Not only the grand piano sound, but also a good percentage of the voices (out of 614, of course a few of them are subpar).
On top of all this, the lesson feature is wonderful. I don't know how to play piano or read music or anything, but the lesson feature teaches you how to play any of the 100 songs pre-programmed into the keyboard. I've only had it about 3 days, and I'm learning a lot faster than I would have thought.
So if you're looking for an extremely versatile instrument that won't break your bank, this is definitely for you. If you want something that plays just like a piano, then buy a piano. But I can't recommend this product enough.
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