Evaluating stage pianos: Clavia Nord Stage 88 EX, Clavia Nord 88, Yamaha P155, Yamaha CP5, Yamaha CP50, Roland V-piano, Roland RD-300GX, Roland FP7, Roland FP4 and if not finding anything acceptable, Yamaha S90XS.
Looking for good sound, specially grand piano sound, and good keyboard, also for classical music. Tests were performed with Sennheiser 600 headphones. Bad performance could sometimes depend on weak headphones outputs, but a good headphone sound should imply as good or better line outputs.
Clavia Nords have nice read design. Nord 88 has interesting behavior of the internal sounds in the piano box, like when hitting the sustain pedal. Unfortunately their keyboards are not very impressive, and – whatever Clavia says – the keyboard of the new Nord 88 is worse than the Stage EX keyboard. I did not really like the sound, I want more delicacy.
Yamaha P155 did not resolve complex chords, compared to most of the competitors.
Roland V-piano may be a good piano, but the price and weight makes it an impossible choice. And I do not want to wait until the technique pours down to sensible solutions.
Roland RD-300GX has terrible sound in the headphones. Maybe a good keyboard.
Roland FP7 is a better piano than FP4, both keyboard and sound. But the Yamaha CPx were better.
So, finally the choice was between CP5 and CP50. CP50 has only one grand piano sound while the CP5 has two. But the CP50 keyboard is heavier and much better. Price and weight are bonuses. In the price range it easily wins over competitors.
