Yamaha NP30 Portable Grand Piano Review

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(More customer reviews)Before detailed remarks, here is my reference point. Having been spoiled with playing real pianos (I should say "acoustic", for PC :), I wanted a keyboard just to enjoy some classical music on my own, at my amateur level. I wanted it to be like a piano (in how it feels and sounds) but small and inexpensive.
PROS:
PORTABILITY - especially for an (almost) full-size keyboard. I really didn't want another piece of furniture. NP30 just lies on the table, which (to my own surprise) ended up as the deciding factor for me. YMMV.
SOUND. All the voices (including grand piano, organ, harpsichord) are well done and beautiful. (But see "CONS" below.)
KEY WEIGHTING. NP30's keys are something like "semi-weighted" and "touch sensitive" (but consult the official specs on this) and somewhat easy to press. But see "CONS" below. BTW I researched this "weighted" topic quite a bit and tried several options, but my practical conclusion is this. If you care about the feel, go more high-end or get the real thing (an acoustic piano, that is). Otherwise you will likely get used to what you have, even though it isn't perfect.
SIMPLICITY. The controls are few and quite intuitive.
PRICE. It's all relative, of course, but compared to other full-size keyboards out there, it's among the cheapest - $300 at Best Buys. (And that's without any sale discounds - Best Buys felt kinda thin on sales to me.)
CONS:
KEY WEIGHTING. While offering you an approximation of an acoustic piano's feel, NP30's keys are not quite there. First, they are hard to press if you place your fingers far from the edge of the key (i.e. towards the back of the keyboard) - I have never noticed this on an acoustic. Second, in some cases when I press several keys at once, NP30 doesn't sense one or two of them, whereas an acoustic piano would. I have to re-adjust the pressure to get NP30 to play them.
SOUND. While individual sounds are beautiful, their combinations may not parallel the richness of an acoustic piano's. This is probably because there is no is no resonating effect between the various strings. (Which is quite understandable at this price level.)
FEATURES (missing). The ones I cared about: additional voices (NP30 only got 10) and the 12 keys for the full-size 88-key keyboard. Again, it's all about a trade-off against portability and price.
ACCESSORIES (missing). Power adapter and the sustain pedal are not included, and Best Buys charges $25-30+ for each. This is a RIP-OFF, people. For power, look around; maybe you have a compatible one already (12V, 1500 mA, negative is outside) - or use rechargeable batteries. And maybe you are fine without the pedal (I am still to answer that question for myself).


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