Yamaha DGX650B Digital Piano

I've had this piano for about 6 weeks now. I decided to wait to write the review, until I had some experience using it. So here goes. As the title of my review states: I am a professional musician. I studied piano for 10+ years, had a 30-year career as a professional opera singer, and have played piano ALL my life. I have used my piano skills to accompany myself, learning roles, etc. and also as a private voice teacher. This is all by way of saying: I know pianos, and, I am most accustomed to a traditional acoustic piano. I recently moved back to CA from NYC, and was not in a position to buy a "regular" piano. After a great deal of research and reading NUMEROUS reviews, I settled upon purchase of this Yamaha Digital Piano. As someone who dearly misses the upright grand I played all my life, let me just say: I am THRILLED with this purchase. Sound: Several reviews on Amazon are noting things such as: a lack of clarity in the lower range of the keys / imperfect action of the keys / imperfect sound here and there. If you are looking for a PERFECT Grand Piano sound - then you need to buy a Grand Piano, or spend many thousands of dollars on a Clavinova. If you are looking for a really FINE digital keyboard that can get as close as possible to that lovely and true acoustic sound produced by a grand piano - then this is the one. The sound is fabulous - as true and clear a Grand Piano sound as you are going to get in a digital keyboard. In my teaching I keep it pretty much always on the Grand Piano setting. One thing I'm REALLY liking about it is, in fact, the volume control. I have several students whose voices are not quite as developed or "loud", and the ability to calibrate the volume of the accompaniment is helping greatly in my instruction. Action of the keys: Personally, I really LIKE the action of the keys. They feel properly-weighted and not terribly different from what I'm used to in an acoustic piano. Others on this site have made note of a mild clicking sound when one depresses and releases the keys. This IS present, but quite honestly, is nothing I really notice - at all. It is VERY mild, and does not bother me. Pedals: Be aware: if comes with just one pedal that attaches via cord to the back of the piano. This functions as the damper (sustain) pedal. For my immediate purposes it's working fine, but I will definitely purchase the add-on, three-pedal unit. The single pedal, over time, will not be sufficient for my needs. Set-up: I am a fairly strong, athletic woman, and I was able to get this up two flights of stairs, on my own. I set it up on my own as well, and set up was clear and straightforward. Just follow the instructions EXACTLY as indicated, and it will be very easy. It took me about a half-hour. HAVE AN ELECTRIC SCREWDRIVER ON HAND---it will make the set-up monumentally easier. As others have said here as well: having the ability to utilize headphones, and play / practice, in a way that does not bother others, is invaluable. Lastly---the only thing I did NOT anticipate is the fact that the detachable music stand sits farther back on the console, than on a regular acoustic piano. Of course this makes sense - because there are so many digital settings. So just be aware of that one detail. I'm used to the music being right at the front. But this really is not a big deal. If you're looking for a really GOOD, good quality and reliable keyboard that can give you the best possible sound, without breaking the bank, then I HIGHLY recommend this keyboard. Good luck and Happy Music Making!

First off, I am not a piano or digital piano expert so take this with a grain of salt. My 7 year old daughter has started piano lessons and we decided to go the electronic route rather than the real piano route because 1) the difficulty of moving a real piano and 2) the ability to adjust volume/use headphones on the digital piano. When this arrived I was a little stunned by the size and weight of the box. There was a label saying it weighed over 70 pounds and it was probably close to 6 feet long. It was a small challenge for me and my wife to get it in the house. Once we did and started unpacking I was again a little shocked by the size of the digital piano. This is probably primarily due to my lack of knowledge about these things. It does seem quite deep with a lot of space dedicated to the LCD screen and buttons. The stand was fairly easy to assemble. Phillips screws. It might be helpful to have a second person just to hold boards in place while you put the screws in but not absolutely necessary. It took probably 20 minutes and was simple enough. The stand seems sturdy and is attractive enough although pretty utilitarian. It has a nice very dark brown to black wood veneer but is clearly particle board (or MDF if you want to make it sound fancier) underneath. The music stand just pushes in to the top of the piano. It unfortunately does not fold down so you can cover the piano easier. It is made of black plastic. The AC adapter plugs in the back, a little bit off to the lower notes side of piano. It has a fairly small box for the adapter for the plug in but it does have one. The keys of the piano seem very nice to me, very much the same as a real piano from what I can tell. The feel is nice, again similar to a piano (I did play piano and had a piano as a kid but that has been 30+ years ago). The sound is impressively good and being able to adjust the volume is nice. The regular piano sounds do not get really loud although some of the sound effect sounds and more tinney instrument sounds do. As my daughter did her first practice and I was in the next room I was impressed how I really would not know it isn't a real piano. I played with all the other sounds the piano can make, anything from different piano type sounds, to organs, horns, drums, and even a few things like helicopter, rain, UFO sounds and all of the instrument sounds are impressive (especially the drums). Some of the goofier sound effect sounds are quite real sounding and some sound pretty fake (thunder for instance). As far as my complaints to this point I can only think of one and it is the music stand. First, the placement is poorly thought out. Seriously, is it more important to have good access to all these buttons and screens most people will rarely use or to the music you are reading? The music stand is much further from the eye than on a traditional piano. Why couldn't it have been designed to fold down so you could put a dust cover on the piano easily. And a built in light rather than having to buy one would certainly be a nice feature. It is also just the cheapest looking piece of the piano. It seems like an afterthought for something that is really pretty important. We've only had this piano a few days so I'll try to update this after more use if I see other good/bad features.

I remembered recently how much I had wanted to learn to play the piano as a child, but the only thing we could afford was a small (not even 88 key) organ that sounded nothing like a piano and I quickly lost interest in playing it. I decided to price digital pianos, and ended up going with a model that has a key press that more closely resembles a real piano, so that if I ever had the chance to play a real piano, I wouldn't be completely thrown off. I have to say, this instrument sounds quite wonderful and I'm thrilled with the purchase. I added the three pedal attachment to it, as well, even though I am not yet at a level where I would use anything other than the sustain. I would not hesitate to recommend this to someone who is looking for a rich sound (only made better by the fact you can plug it into your surround system if you get the proper cable), plenty of great tech options and voices, high quality construction, all at a very reasonable price. If I had any complaints, it would only be that using a standard bench (the Yamaha BB1), I find it's a little difficult to reach the pedals without wedging my legs between the bench and the bottom of the piano. This can easily be remedied with a single 2x4 cut to the proper length and put under the legs on either side, so that's nothing worth deducting a star over. I'm a pretty big guy (but not obese), though, so I would imagine that people who aren't tall and/or wide won't have any issues with the spacing.

Enjoying all the features of this versatile keyboard.

Superb keyboard from Yamaha so glad I bought this I was looking and researching for a year before I got and glad I did it’s brilliant with true to life piano sounds and the synths are great

Excellent piano, I am very pleased with it and the price I paid, certainly very good value. Would definitely recommend this product and the seller, arrived very quickly.

Sono molto contento con l'instrumento. L'ho comprato per imparare a suonare il pianoforte, ma poi ho scoperto anche le tante altre funzioni. L'unica cosa che li manca forse è la possibilita di registrare la voce con la musica, quello che fa la versione piu nuova (660?). Anche le librerie sono belle. Per esempio per i ritmi di batteria.

Ha soddisfatto a pieno le mie aspettative...ottimo prodotto! L' unico difetto tutte le istruzioni in inglese, per mia figlia di 8 anni è un po' difficile muoversi autonomamente, ma in rete ho trovato le stesse in italiano.