As digitals go, I don't think I'll upgrade the sound is amazing on this little gem. I woundn't purchase this if you live in an apartment and plan on using the headphones a great deal. But if you have a home and can pound away at the keys at will, the sound is just beautiful. I might go acoustic one day but the sound will have to surpass this. The sound of this (with the sub) blows away many of the upright accoustic models.

Sound
The piano sound is rich and beautiful when using the external speakers. The upper registers are the best I've heard on a digital, period. I've actually taken the time to write Yamaha and thank them for this product, it sounds so very nice. However, the wattage is a bit low and so the bass tones sound a bit flat compared to the real deal out of the box, but if you add a powered sub to the unit like I did, this thing sounds amazing. I find it sounds best when I have the blinds open and the natural reverb of the instrument echos off the glass. Just amazing. With the blinds closed, and this in the corner along the wall, it still sounds good, just not quite as authentic without the houses natural reverb. On the negative side, the sound through the headphones not good at all. I've tried many different headphone types and no matter what I select it always sounds like an AM Radio when playing with the headphones on. The problem appears to be that the unit produces all of it's bass sound through the bottom speaker… read more and when you shut that off (by default) when the stereo headphones go on, there is nothing producing the bass sound in the headphones at all. I've downloaded MIDI files of Liszt,Rachmaninoff, and a Myra Hess arrangement of Bach and the MIDI sounds just as good as if it were being played live.

Features
All of the money on this was spent in the key feel and external sound. Compared to other digitals, the menu here is pretty light. But it does have 64 key polyphony, MIDI , speaker output jacks, 3 levels of attack sampling for each key, 50 demo songs, 10 insturment types, a metronome, all the transpostion modifications, pitch modifications, reverb depth and echo adjustments, amazingly, no recorder... and while most every digital has those options, where the money spent in developing this was clearly invested in the sound, and it sounds amazing.

Ease of Use
The product was designed for people who just want a Grand Piano sound and feel on a digital at a resonable price. I personally think the options are fairly straight forward, however, some may not like the fact that the headphone jacks are underneath the product rather than on the side of the instrument.

Quality
Solid fit and product finish but the metal stand and casing give it a bit of an unwelcome touch. The keys on the other hand and great. Heavier on the low registers and lighter on the top, the slow close fall board is a very nice touch.

Value
The price is in the upper range of the low end instruments. This product however, has probably the best sound in an entry level digital. In fact, it sounds as good or better than a lot of the high end instruments when using the external speakers.

Manufacturer Support
N/A

The Wow Factor
The sound is sexy, I perfer the design of this digital to the faux wood options out there for many of the others. As digitals go, it looks pretty nice, until you get into the expensive high-gloss wood models. It's still nothing compared to the look of a high-gloss acoustic digital.

Musical Background:
Intermediate Pianist

Musical Style:
Classical read less