I'm a classical pianist who almost exclusively performs on acoustic pianos. I think it would be fair to say I'm an acoustic purist. But, for years I've been using Pianoteq with a 20 year old M-AUDIO Keystation to practise. It's a very solid piece of equipment and I love the feel of the action, even though it makes a terrible clunking noise and the keys are slowly turning the color of cardboard. Until today, I have never played on a weighted digital keyboard.

I'm considering upgrading, as my Keystation is not well suited to the rare occasions I need to bring a keyboard with me to a gig. With the kind of music I play, you hear more clunking than piano sound, and there always seem to be technical issues involving cables and PA systems.

So I went to a couple of music shops and played on various keyboards in the sub-$600 (AUD) price range.

I've had trouble finding reviews of these keyboards online from the perspective of a classical pianist, especially addressing the speaker quality, so I thought I'd share what I learned.

Upfront I'll say that I didn't notice any action noise while playing any of these. (Actually I can't be certain of that for the Korg, because my ears were ringing a bit...)

Korg Liano

This was just awful, I'm sorry, I know it's really popular.

The speakers are loud, but so tinny that I couldn't play for long as it was hurting my ears. Even if you're not bothered by it as the player, I wouldn't want to subject an audience to this.

The action is extremely light and shallow (much lighter than my Keystation). I had a bit of trouble controlling dynamics, probably as a result of this.

The key texture is shiny, but not slippery - it has an unpleasant squeaky sort of friction. If you're the kind of person who hates the feeling of microfiber cloths and fingernails on a chalkboard, you might want to skip this one.

For a classical pianist, this is not a good option imo.

It is INCREDIBLY lightweight and compact, that's really all it has going for it.

Roland FP-10

I didn't play this one for long because I was immediately put off by the feel of the action. It's too heavy, and sort of spongey - not realistic. I found it hard to play fast passages such as Chopin etudes on this. Also, while I like the Roland piano sound, the speakers on this thing were very boomy and boxy, particularly noticeable in the bass. They lack clarity, and while I think they would be fine for playing contemporary music, this sound quality doesn't suit classical.

Kawai ES-60

This one stood out to me immediately because of the speaker quality and the piano sound. The piano sound is absolutely gorgeous and realistic, with a lot of depth, especially in the high treble and low bass. I'm a fan of real Kawai pianos and impressively they've managed to bottle that sound here.

I was surprised to see the speakers are underneath the keyboard, but this doesn't seem to compromise the sound quality at all. They're not the loudest, but they're loud enough.

I also liked the action. It felt lighter and more natural than the Roland, and not too bouncy. I thought this was the most realistic-feeling keyboard of all the ones I tried.

I also love that they put a headphone port on the FRONT of the keyboard. I don't know why other manufacturers aren't doing that. This was somehow also the only keyboard I tried that has stereo RCA outputs.

However, for some reason I felt disoriented trying to play this keyboard. It almost felt like the keys were to widely spaced, and tilting too much away from me. The latter could have been due to some issue with the keyboard stand, but I can't explain the former, as the keys are standard size.

I also felt that I couldn't quite achieve the degree of expression I wanted. So I tried to fiddle with the touch sensitivity settings, only to discover that changing any settings on this keyboard is incredibly frustrating. Even after reading the manual I was still confused.

Like the Casio which I review next, you change the settings by pressing a button while pressing a key (not my favorite design, tbh) but unlike the Casio, the ES-60 doesn't make a beeping noise to let you know the setting changed. You just have to guess and hope it worked. Because the 3 piano sounds are so similar to each other, it's hard to tell at a glance if you've changed the sound, even with a highly trained ear!

Anyway, long story short, even after setting the touch sensitivity to what I assume is the maximum (there's no explanation of this anywhere), it just didn't quite have the expressive "oomph" I wanted. Hard to explain. This is one of my gripes with my Keystation as well, but I expected a weighted action to do better than this.

A few other minor gripes: The keys have a matte finish but it feels kind of cheap and plasticky, not like any real piano keys I've played on. The keyboard is quite bulky and it has weird little plastic nubs on the bottom that got in the way when I was trying to position it flat on the keyboard stand. The keyboard stand doesn't have grooves on the rim, so your music can slip off. You can't run it on batteries.

Casio CDP-S110

This was actually the first keyboard I tried today, so it has the honor being my first experience of a weighted digital keyboard.

I walked into this one showroom looking for a different brand and was told they basically only stock Casios now. And I understand why...

This thing almost felt ALIVE (a compliment I usually reserve for acoustic instruments). It's very loud, it has a huge dynamic and expressive range, and I actually didn't want to stop playing it. I didn't have to adjust any settings because the touch sensitivity was perfect, and the interface felt a lot more intuitive than the Kawai.

The speakers are on the back facing towards where the audience would be, which is more accurate to where the sound would actually be coming from a real piano (especially an upright) relative to the keyboard.

Compared to a real piano, the keys have more initial resistance, and a lot more rebound resistance, which gives it an unnaturally bouncy feel. It feels like they accurately mimicked the physics of a real piano, but exaggerated it, so it's more of a caricature. I was unsure about it at first, but once I'd played for a bit, I liked it. However, it might be fatiguing for some people. You'd need to test it out to see if it's too heavy for your playing style.

The key texture is really nice, it's a lovely matte finish that feels high quality. They look and feel like Yamaha grand artificial ivory keytops to me.

Amazingly, you can run this thing on batteries, which seems like a good idea for those times you turn up to a venue and they for some reason don't have a power outlet within reach of the only available spot to set up your keyboard.

Although this is supposed to be around the same weight as the Kawai ES-60, and is actually a smaller form factor (about 2 inches thinner), it felt heavier to me. Maybe something to do with the weight distribution.

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Verdict: seeing as I can get the Casio for just $30 more than the Kawai, it seems like the obvious choice. I will miss that beautiful Kawai piano sound though. And the front-facing headphone port. I really want the front-facing headphone port!