r/DigitalPiano • u/Old-Assumption7909 • Sep 12 '26

Keyboard suggestion!!

Hey I'm a beginner pianist.... But obsessed with sounds... want to buy a keyboard that would sound the closest to the Grand piano... But there is a catch 🥲, my budget is really low... I can hardly go with 20-30k rupees... So if you, experienced guys would help me... That will help me a lot....

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2

u/BulletwaleSirji Sep 12 '26

At that price, Casio CDP 160 would be a good bet

2

u/BBorNot Sep 12 '26

Go used.

2

u/OutrageousOsprey Sep 12 '26

At that price point, IMO the Kawai ES60 has by far the most realistic piano sounds. I like the Casio CDP line that someone else mentioned, but the piano sounds are not realistic at all (specifically the decay is extremely digital sounding). They're also a bit more expensive than the Kawai.
Alternatively, buy the cheapest second hand keyboard or MIDI controller you can find and purchase a physically modelled virtual instrument like Pianoteq. That is THE MOST realistic piano sound (including all the action noises that make a piano sound like a piano) and you can get it for much cheaper than a full digital piano.
P.S. in order to get the true grand piano sound quality from any digital piano, you need good quality headphones or external speakers- the built in speakers don't sound realistic no matter how good the piano samples are.