The matte coating also makes the YDP-164 resistant to fingerprints, which is encouraging news for people with sweaty palms. The YDP series, also known as the Arius series, is Yamaha’s main line of quality, affordable digital pianos, aimed at beginner- and intermediate-level players. Pianos are naturally a short distance from the player, yet headphones place the pianos right beside the ears of the player.

The exterior designs of a digital piano are relevant, but certainly not the only aspect worth considering. The main thing to look out for when choosing a piano, digital or acoustic, is the keyboard. Besides these, control is another major advantage of digital pianos. Unfortunately, this is where the YDP-164 falters. The club reverb is a surprising highlight, being a more intimate “room” algorithm that captures the closeness of a large grand piano in an enclosed environment. The IAC effect is most prominent when playing dynamic piano pieces that use a wide range of octaves. At a high intensity, the IAC acts as a compressor, ensuring that the overall volume is consistent throughout. This is many times better than the experience you’d get from the cumbersome controls I’ve previously discussed.Although the GHS is not bad, it is quite basic compared to other actions on the market, especially in 2019. It is a duel sensored action without any advanced features such as synthetic Ivory keytops, counterweights, triple sensors, etc. SOUND Owning a digital piano rather than an acoustic offers several benefits. Never going out of tune is one of them, and so is lower prices.

While the keys do have quite a bit of weight to them, I’d say they come close to the experience you’d expect from a real piano. The only similarity between the Yamaha YDP-144 and the Yamaha P125 in matters of sound is the way they render the sound. Both use sound samples from acoustic pianos. But this is also where the similarities stop. We’ll discuss the layering mode in an upcoming section, but rest assured, the sounds you’re getting here are well-sampled and sound terrific. This is particularly noticeable when playing the same note in rapid succession and enables expressive control.

Yamaha’s grand pianos have been featured on countless records, with their C3 grand being among the most-used grand pianos ever. Having a dedicated volume knob, as opposed to a volume slider, is executes volume swells quite well. The music rest even comes with a few score-holding pegs which were not part of the YDP-144. These are helpful inclusions that certainly help during sight-reading practice. Master Tuning. The central tuning of the keyboard can be changed in steps of 0.2 Hz. The default pitch is the standard 440.0Hz for Middle A. These feel better to play, at least to me. Again, I’d like to reiterate that it really comes down to personal preference, and my opinions may very well differ from your own.