Feature:
Features above and beyond the normal piano touch/response were not that important to me. The touch, however, is excellent. It really feels like a mid-range grand piano. The only thing I would add (I'm spoiled - used to playing Steinway Concert Grands) is the quick-return keys. On a Steinway, when you lift the key halfway up, you can feel the mechanism reset itself, so you can play the same note repeatedly at high speed. With passages such as the fast solo from Rhapsody in Blue, this would really make it feel like $100,000 piano. For those who can't afford 6 figures for a piano (neither can I!), the graded hammer action and variable touch (soft, medium, hard) make this a GREAT feeling piano to play.
It comes with the obligatory 10 voices or so, can record a couple of tracks (it would have been nice to record more, so I could accompany myself without having to re-record each time I change pieces), and has lots of demos. The demos make some nice background music, but really if you want to listen to piano music, a CD costs a lot less! The MIDI features, RCA audio jacks (put it through your amp system!), dual headphone sockets, matching bench, and 3 pedals really round this piano out.
I just REALLY wish there were clips music books on the stand. Come on, even the cheapest uprights have those! It makes it VERY difficult to play music out of the book they include with the piano, let alone larger books. I couldn't bring myself to take 1 point off from the score for this, but it was very close.
Quality:
The wood finish looks excellent, and really fits in with the brown leather couches in my living room. Most importantly, though, the piano is sturdy. You can bash out Rachmaninoff on this thing without having it wobble and tilt under you. Even the included bench (which looks a little weak at first) holds up very well.
Value:
Definitely worth it. It strikes the best balance between features (excellent feel and response, sturdy quality, great sound) and price. When you're thinking about getting a Yamaha Clavinova that costs $600 - $1500 more, just ask yourself if you're actually going to USE what you're paying for. I surely wouldn't.
On the other hand, I wouldn't have paid any more than I did for it, as an extra $200 or so would start to look expensive.
Desirability:
Excellent, excellent, excellent. I needed a good-looking, good-feeling, good-sounding piano, and I got it. Plus, all the extra bells and whistles are just icing on a delicious cake.
Sound:
The sound is probably the last reason I bought this piano. However, I was pleasantly surprised that it sounded excellent. I think they sampled the sounds from one of their own grand pianos, and you do get a sense of size which is surprising from such a small machine. If you really want loud sound, you may want to look at some of the Yamaha Clavinovas, which have 40W (or more) speakers. There are some very nice little touches, like the "key up" sound for the harpsichord, which accurately reproduces the sound made when you release a key.
Support:
I have no idea about support, as I've not had to use it. The only thing I didn't like was that, while this piano is IDENTICAL to the CLP-120 (another Yamaha, but in the Clavinova line), the YDP223 comes with a 1-year warranty, whereas the Clavinova comes with 5 years. While I don't expect (or hope) use it, it would be nice to have.
Overall:
This piano is exactly what I was looking for. A great, authentic keyboard action (though not a Steinway), well-sampled sound, high-class looks, and lots of little extras that wrap it up nicely (bench, music book, MIDI, etc). I can play anything from Bach to Brahms on this thing, and it performs wonderfully.
My one niggling annoyance is that they just didn't think to put music book clips on the music stand. It would have cost about 50cents, but they just didn't do it. Tut tut.
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