Yamaha P95 Reviews

“It is modern looking (I have the silver model), but compact which is just what I wanted”

After lots of research, I bought my digital piano from the Yamaha Dealer in Tarragona, Spain. I chose the Yamaha P95 because it seemed to offer the qualities I was looking for and was very good value for money. (I have not played the piano for 40 years and was not sure if I would take to it, so didn’t want to spend too much initially).

The service and delivery from Tarragona Musical was excellent. They were very helpful via email and the order was placed on line. Delivery was exactly as promised.

The piano has 88 keys and produces a very realistic sound. It is modern looking (I have the silver model), but compact which is just what I wanted. A friend who is a very good pianist and organist has played it and commented on the excellent sound quality and realistic touch.

The only slight negative I have found is that the options for sound (Hall 1, Hall 2, Room or Stage), appear to sound the same??

Overall I am VERY pleased with my new piano. I’ve now had it for a month and played it every day!

Reviewed by Jenny, Tarragona, Spain

 

“These are customer reviews from actual owners of this piano.
The most recent review is at the top of this page “, Graham Howard, Piano Advisor

Send me an email if you have any questions or need advice: grahamhoward@ukpianos.co.uk
Or call 020 8367 5107

 

2) “I love both the grand piano voices myself”

After MUCH research and investigation I finally bought the Yamaha P95s (silver version) two weeks ago.
I bought it from an online store here in Sydney (Bavas) who had good phone support too.
They had no silver pianos in stock but ordered one in for me, only took a couple of days and worth
it as I think the silver is much more stylish.

So after 2 weeks of playing what do I think? Here’s the review:

1) ACTION; lovely to play, very responsive, you can play with feeling, loud or soft. All keys
heard when pressed together.

2) Sound: it’s not that loud, I play mine pretty much on full volume, but that’s prob loud
enough for the neighbours.
If you want a bigger sound, you’d need external amplification.
The bass keys DO rattle when you play. This is because the speakers provided inside the unit are small.
To avoid this, again you’d need external amplification.
When playing the piano into headphones it sounds FANTASTIC, just awesome.

3) Voices: it’s really a piano, not a synth, so if you want lots of funky voices it’s not for you.
I love both the grand piano voices myself. Don’t really use any of the others, but a fun option is
that you can have two voices on at the same time, ie piano and choir which is good fun

4) programming: it’s fairly easy to work out all the fun things it can do, the booklet that comes
with it is a bit stodgy but not too impossible. The reverb effects are great. I found the metronome
a bit clunky to use, but that will get easier with practice I expect.
Record function is very easy to use and fun too, you can record one part and then play along over
the top of it later. It stays on teher even if you switch the machine off, but NOT if you unplug it.

5) Works well with Garage Band on Mac, can be a piano sound or as a synth to work with whatever you’ve
got going on but you will need to buy a midi to USB cable. Got mine online for about $50. You can get
really cheap ones, but I think cables need to be good quality, the carry all the info. (got an M-Audio
cable after reading lots of reviews)

Other useful info:
it works fine sat on your table, so long as it’s a sturdy one, it’s pretty heavy. You don’t need a
stand, the old model the P85 was not flat underneath and needed a stand, but this one is fine

The piano comes with it’s own plug in delay pedal, or you can buy the 3 pedal set. I love the delay
and it works brilliantly.

Get a stretchy dust proof cover for it. Can’t tell you much cat hair managed to get in there in one
week. I think he was playing it in the night. Got mine from Amazon.com. About $50, which seems a lot
for a nylon bag, but it’s great.

Use the very best headphone you can get hold of and have a play of it thru them, it’s awesome.

Overall if you are playing at home for fun, but want the piano feel and expression I think this is
a great choice of digital piano

Reviewed by Nat Bayley, Sydney, Australia

 

3) “The sound quality is no where as good as it should be”

I have had my P95 piano for about 5 months now so I thought I’d write
a review.

My point of comparison is a Korg TR 61 I own; it has reasonably studio ready
sound-sets and features- While it is a different beast I still think it does piano
quite well. I also used to play a Roland HP 102e regularly which has its own
pros and cons.

Yamaha P95-B (paid £595)

Pros:
– The Action (Graded Hammer Standard – GHS) is very nice and allows
for expressiveness.
– MIDI IN/OUT – useful for hooking the P95 up with my other stuff.
– Half pedaling functionality
– Demo songs, Metronome, Recording
– X stand compatibility
– Elegant design

Cons:
– The sound quality is no where as good as it should be (being a
dedicated instrument)- the sounds I can work with are Piano 1,
Electric Piano 1, Harpsichord, and the vibes (even the Harpsichord
feels cheap without the note-off samples).
– Headphone sound quality is full of artifacts- more noticeable at low volumes.
– Plastic chassis
– No line out jacks (the second headphone jack suffices but a
dedicated full volume port is more ideal).

I bought this piano to mainly help me my return to piano studies. All
in all it is quite a decent machine, the touch and sound quality is
just right for practice. Having said that its sound set feels a
generation old since some other pianos at this price point can offer a
multi-sampled Grand where this one doesn’t. The instrument makes up
for it shortcomings by offering the MIDI jacks which allow its superb
action to bring more out of other sound modules and keyboards. Great
for the home- not great for work. If I were to lose this instrument
I’d probably shed the extra couple hundred pounds or so to get a
P155 instead.

Reviewed by Roderick Timmerman (30/11/2010)

4) “I would have preferred to have seen at least 10 watts per channel for a fuller sound”

At long last my Yamaha P95 was delivered this afternoon – by Land Rover as one of the sales staff lives locally. (This method of delivery was opted for as we have had about 18” of snow here in Falkirk).

Anyway, first impressions are that the P95 with the stand was very light in weight compared with my old Gem DP20. Second impression is that aside from the keys, the appearance/finish looks and feels a little “plasticy” in the silver version that I chose.

At first when assembling the stand I thought the seating position might be a bit on the low side but once on the stand, the keys were at an acceptable height for my piano stool and playing position. However, the touch response/action at the default (average) setting is fine.

Now to the actual sound. Grand piano 1 sounds great through the headphones particularly in the bass register but the top four or five notes could sound a bit better. Without the headphones these upper half dozen notes could definitely sound better. With reverb set at an average room the sound improves a little but at the hall reverb setting the lower register notes sound a bit not quite right.

Grand piano 2 at the normal room setting reverb sees an improvement on this with good rendition of the top register notes – this will probably be my preferred mode.

The 6 watts per channel speakers are adequate for a small room but I would have preferred to have seen at least 10 watts per channel for a fuller sound.

The other voices are a good selection of sounds. Overall the P95 would be an excellent instrument for newcomers and reasonably skilled players and where the floor space available is limited.

For myself the piano has a good sound and should suffice for all my needs – I am the official accompanist for one of our local amateur operatic societies and I felt that after nearly twenty years with the Gem it was time to get a more modern 88 key instrument. Anyway, I am nearly seventy so this piano should see me out!

The small supplied sustain pedal does just that but its relatively small size means that it ‘creeps’ across the floor when in use – I would have preferred one with a swivel heel grip. As a reult, sometime soon I am going to invest in the proper pedal board attachment. One other very useful feature that Yamaha may like to consider for future modifications would be an indicator light built in to or adjacent to the voice selection buttons to show which one is in use at any one time (my old Gem has this feature).

Apart from that, the piano is a nice instrument to play with an excellent sound and feel.

Would I recommend the Yamaha P95 – for students and reasonably skilled players yes, but for mainly domestic use rather than for more demanding stage work where I would suggest the use of an external amp and speaker(s).

23/04/2011 Here is a short newsflash on how things are going with the P95 I bought back in December and reviewed then. I have now added the proper pedal unit and this is a great improvement over the supplied little sustain pedal. I have also attached a copy of a self portrait as requested.

The Yamaha has been well used over the past few months in preparation for our local amateur operatic society’s production of Godspell which is running this week in Falkirk town hall. The musical accompaniment for the show is provided by only two keyboards, bass guitar and drums. The opening number is solo piano with yours truly on the society’s own keyboard, a Roland RD170, hence the need back in November to purchase a decent instrument to practice on at home as there is no hiding place with only two keyboards! (The main keyboard used by the MD is an all singing all dancing professional Korg unit).

Review by Charles Woodford (04/12/2010)

5) “I felt comfortable playing on the Yamaha”

I have just bought a P95 Yamaha, but before do it I was testing a casio privia px-330, this last one had a lot of extra features like 250 sounds, a 16 track sequencer, 128 polyphony, affordable price, but there was something that didn’t convince me, the touch of the keys was not the same as Yamaha. On the Yamaha I felt comfortable playing on it, not the same with Privia.

Reviewed by Tito from Lima Peru – Latino America (30/12/2010)

6) “Allthough key-wise the P95 wasn’t as good as a digital piano, but the benefits lay elsewhere”

On paper it became a battle between Yamaha and Classenti.
If I was a UK resident I would probably go for a Classenti, but due to the higher shipping costs for the mainland it’s in the same price range as the yamaha’s

To keep controll, I had to set a budget. Since I only started playing about 2 months ago I decided to set the budget no higher then Yamaha’s YDP-161.

After comparing a few Yamaha’s (YDP-161, CLP-340, …) and Rolands (RP-201, HP-302,…) at the local musicshop.
I noticed that Yamaha sounded brighter (a little more realistic) then Roland, but on the other hand Roland had more expression in its sound.
I also started looking at stage piano’s (Korg, Yamaha, Roland).

Because most of the time I’ll be playing with a headphone the volume and quality of the speakers seem less important to me.
Allthough key-wise they were a not as good as the digital piano’s there benefits lay elsewhere.
Since I’m living in a flat it was the portability that made me choose a stage piano instead of a digitial piano … and thus I acquired a Yamaha P95B and pedal controller LP5.

If I keep continuing practicing at the current pace (1-2 hours a day), chances are big that next year I’ll be shopping again for a digital piano but with a larger budget.

Reviewed by Igor Jansen, Belgium (30/12/2010)

7) “I played it for a few weeks and grew more and more disappointed”

I am relatively clueless re pianos. Just started a few weeks ago with the idea to buy a digital piano for my kids and me. All of us are beginners and there is the danger that we all might lose interest.

However I am crazy with specifications and typically my mind sets on something ‘good’.

I decided in principle to buy a portable piano that is a close as possible to a real acoustic piano.
-> authentic action
-> authentic piano sound (other voices are not important)
-> portability
-> reasonable price (maybe 1000USD tops)

1st step:

3 weeks ago I bought the P95 as it seemed to fit my spec

I played it for a few weeks and grew more and more disappointed. The action still seemed ok as I had no experience with a real acoustic piano. But I disliked the sound as I started to hear the ‘synthesizer’ quality of it. Especially when the sounds fade it converts into something electronic rather than acoustic. (I play acoustic guitar and have a certain expectation on resonance etc.)

Reviewed by Axel Muench, Bangkok, Thailand (03/01/2011)

8) “There were various faults: I received a second P 95 after complaining. This instrument was even worse!”

Just before Christmas 2010 I got a P 95 Yamaha digital portable piano. There were various faults with it: a) mechanical noise of various keys (clearly heard particularly with volume 0) b) high pitch overtones when using the sustain pedal, particularly with the high keys c) 5 top keys did not produce any proper sound.

So I received a second P 95 after complaining. This instrument was even worse! So I have lost confidence in this instrument and will get my money back.

Reviewed by Robert Bolsius

9) “I really like the feel of the keyboard, although the action is a little lighter than on an upright piano”

I had piano lessons during my primary school years, and continued to play for fun in my teens – although not very well. Now, half a century later, and having played guitar and bass guitar all this time, I feel a strong pull back to the piano. Even if my situation allowed for an accoustic piano, I would probably still have gone for a digital one for it’s advantages.

So I recently bought a Yamaha P95. My original interest, after reading Graham Howard’s excellent book, was in a Classenti P1, but I had a couple of concerns: 1) It is rather heavy (I have a temporary place for it at the moment where I need to move it occasionally), 2) I wasn’t convinced it would look good enough for my wife’s taste, as I could find no decent images of it anywhere. As I was not able to satisfy these concerns by trying before buying, I went to GG-Digital to try some of the competition.

They had a good range, mostly Yamaha, Roland and Korg. I tried a number of pianos from the cheapest to about £1000, and liked the P95, mostly I suppose, because it satisfied my concerns above. At 12kg it is just over half the weight of the Classenti P1 (23kg). On playing one note repeatedly, starting as quietly as possible and gradually increasing to the loudest, it sounded like a smooth continuous increase in volume without any of the steps that you would expect with four (or a few more) touch sensitivity levels – perfect! Also the overall appearance, with semi-matt black keys, looks quite classy. The black plastic casing looks good quality – like that used in a quality car interior.

I also bought the L-85 stand and LP-5A pedal board (from Amazon), because the included footswitch was just that – not a proper pedal, and even with the extra weight it is easy enough to move when needed.

I really like the feel of the keyboard, although the action is a little lighter than on an upright piano. It’s not a 100% convincing copy of an accoustic piano keyboard, but close enough to be really enjoyable to play. In the shop I tried a piano without a graded action, and the ‘left hand’ keys felt way too light.

I was pleasantly surprised by the sound quality through the built-in speakers. I wasn’t too concerned about this as I will mostly play through headphones. However it sounds entirely adequate – close enough to an accoustic piano to make playing enjoyable, and loud enough for home use.

A few observations:

The ‘piano 1’ sound is generally very good, however the 4 or so highest notes are pretty much unusable – producing just a sort of percussive ‘clunk’. I don’t like ‘piano 2′ so much, but the highest notes on it are much more usable.

The Electric Piano sounds are quite good, the Church Organ sounds good too, but I’m not keen on the Jazz Organ as it doesn’t have that classic Hammond B-3/Leslie sound I would have liked. Strings or Choir can be usefully combined with a Piano (or other) sound. I don’t like the Harpsichord or Vibraphone much, but I will never use them, anyway.

As I read in another review, the sustained sound becomes quite artificial just before it fades into silence, but I find this only really noticeable when using headphones, and how often do I think I will want to sustain notes that long? Almost never.

The keyboard produces some mechanical noise, noticeable to others in the room when the player is using headphones. I don’t find this a problem in my situation, but others might.

A line output would be useful to connect to an external amplifier. Although one of the headphone outputs can be used, this isn’t so easy to interface with some amplifiers.

A USB port to allow midi over USB would be much more useful than the supplied Midi in/out ports.

The metronone is very useful and easy to set up and use.

In writing the above, I took into account that the P95 is one of the cheaper pianos available with a decent piano feel. It’s not perfect, but you can’t expect a Clavinova at this price. In the shop I tried a Yamaha P155 and it felt and souded a bit better. Of course it was better – it was nearly twice the price – but not nearly as good value as the P95. The Classenti P1 might well be better too, but I like the way the P95 feels and sounds, and I am very happy with my choice.

Reviewed by Alan Broad (12/02/2011)

10) “I have limited space, another reason for choosing the P95”

I am a teacher and have just started to learn to play the piano. I have a limited budget, so wanted to spend less than £500. After reading quite a lot about which piano to choose, and trying to keep to budget, Dawsons were very helpful. I have limited space, another reason for choosing the P95. The sound to me is excellent, but as I say I am a new student. The keys are weighted, but feel quite light compared to the traditional piano I use for my lessons. I am thrilled with my purchase. It sits neatly in my room for me to practise frequently. There are lots of fun things to listen to and play about with. I am already playing a variety of pieces, and just love my P95. Its guaranteed for 2 years. I was worried about making the right decision, but for me this is the perfect choice.

Reviewed by Fran Pett, Gloucestershire, UK (10/03/2011)

11) “My favorite sound is the grand piano 1”

Overall, I really like the piano. The weighted keys fell great, pretty realistics, but the surface is a bit slipery. Nothing to be concerned about though. The sound is OK. my favorite one is the grand piano 1. I don’t really like the plastic finish, but I guess it’s fine considering that this is entry piano. I’ don’t regret my choice at all and I’m sure i still like it in a few years from now, when I’ll be better.

Reviewed by Amélie (23/04/2011)

12) “I think the sound through the headphones is great for the money”

I purchased the Yamaha P95 B to supplement my acoustic piano, mainly with a view to being able to practise through the headphones without disturbing my husband who works from home most days.
From that perspective, I am very pleased with my purchase and think the sound through the headphones is great for the money. In terms of playing out loud, the speakers are probably not as
good as some other digital pianos but for the price (which seems to have come down in the last few weeks as well), I am quite happy.

The feel is similar to my acoustic piano but I can see exactly what people mean now when they say it isn’t a real piano. However for the money spent and the use I purchased it for, it’s excellent.
I have already noticed an improvement in my playing!! Thanks to Graham for his guidance – it was really helpful!

Review by Sarah Ferguson, Carlisle, UK (26/04/2011)

13) “The piano didn’t sound so nice with speakers”

The store had the Kawai ES6 and the Korg SP250 in-store which I also tried out. The P-95 was cheaper then the other two, the Korg by about 100, and the Kawai by about 400. I chose it because it had the heaviest weight and decent touch sensitivity which were the only things I was looking at.

It doesn’t have any extra sounds or features which I didn’t need, so it was perfect. It had a good piano sound,
and all of the other sounds were great. The 50 built-in songs were a nice feature.

The only things I didn’t like was that the piano didn’t sound so nice with speakers, but since I usually wear headphones it’s ok. The piano also shakes when I play hard, which I think is because of the stand. It is an x-style stand, which I bought with the previous NP-30, and it is actually quite unstable.

If you are getting this piano and can afford it, make sure you get the wooden stand that is meant to come with it,
the one that you can attach the three pedals to. The pedal that came with it was also disappointing, but because
I used my old pedal from M-audio, it was fine. The pedal that came with it was synthetic and was not nice to step on.

Bottom line is that if you are getting the Yamaha p-95, Get the accompanying stand and a better pedal, the one that can attach to the stand if you can afford it. Overall a good digital piano, and well worth the price.

I recently invested in the L-85 stand, which greatly improved the stability of the piano. With the X-stand, I faced problems of the music stand falling off due to the instability of the stand and how I played (Strength, speed, etc). The L-85 stand not only fixed this problem and ensured the height of the keyboard was correct, so that when I play a grand piano, the difference in height will not be an issue.

Investing in a good stand will help you in the long run, compared to a cheaper X-style stand. I mentioned this previously but am emphasizing this fact now

Review by Rafael Ardi, Castle Hill, Australia (20/08/2011)

14) “It is more than good enough to start with”

Hi Graham

I kept to my £500 budget and bought a P95S from Normans. I also bought a stand & good pedal from Amazon.

I appreciate your help and would have gone for a CDP1 when I had the itch at Xmas – but I left it too late and UK Pianos had run out of stock.

I am starting from scratch, absolute amateur, but with the benefit of a daughter who is a music teacher, so I am sure I will “encouraged”.
I am happy with the P95, it is more than good enough to start with.

Review by Bill Keay (12/01/2012)

15) “I think this digital piano sounds and feels great”

My opinion about this digital piano:

For me, I am totally new to piano, so I don’t have no much experience about it, then I read Mr. Graham Howard’s “7 things you must know before you buy a digital piano”, it really helps me. I comparing and checking different pianos try to find a best one. Finally, I chose Yamaha P 95 which is simple but it has everything that I need. It has 88 keyboard, so the piano body is kind of long. I want to learn real piano, so I got full keyboard. The weight of the piano wasn’t heavy, but if you carry 3 stairs or higher then you will feel the weight. The weight of the keys is one of the important thing. When I first touch the keyboard, I feel a little bit heavy. After I play a few tone and songs, the heaviness goes less and less. Now, I don’t feel that heavy weight anymore. But I am for sure, if i don’t practice often, i will feel the heaviness again. It has two audio jacks for headphones, so I can just hear the sounds for myself. I think this digital piano sounds and feels great.

Review by Luna Liu, Austin, United States (16/01/2012)

16) “Great piano at a great price”

The piano is very easy to play. The action of the keys are only slightly heavier than other
acoustic pianos I have played, but it is very similar. Sound is good quality, but is not
loud enough for performance use so a keyboard amp would be needed. The standard pedal you
get with the piano isn’t great as it only registers as being either down or up but doesn’t
really have anything in between the two. Great piano at a great price, by far the best I
tried in the price range.

Review by Cameron Malcolm, Franschhoek, South Africa (06/02/2012)

17) “Key touch in general does not seem too different from a real piano”

I’m not a pianist (yet) therefore my scores are absolutely… preliminary! Anyway…

LIKEs
– piano voices, mainly grand piano 1 and 2
– key touch in general (does not seem too different from a real piano)
– sound in the headphones (simply GREAT!!!)
– price
– double headphone
– sound from the loud speaker (it’s good, given the price level, I mean).

unLIKEs
– high thickness of the body (no problem for me, but more for my young daughter)
– one key (central G) more noisy than the others. In general, the keys are a little noisy (when pressed with keyboard turned off)
– no line out (pre-amp)

I was not happy to spend 495 EUR for my P95 (new), after 2 lessons of piano of my 4 years old daughter, without any assurance on her future decision whether to continue or not, but you know, a plant, even the smallest one, needs water to grow: without fresh water, it would die. A poor or toy-level piano is not good water, in my opinion…

Review by Luca Ascari (28/02/2012)

18) “He is really pleased with his new Digital Piano”

Dear Graham

The P95B fits the bill for our son, a full size keyboard with weighted keys at a sensible price for a fickle teenager who regularly changes his interestes and hobbies. We do of course have the option of adding a wooden stand and 3 x pedal section should he still (hopefully) be playing and progressing in the future.
Compared with his previous (Yamaha) keyboard the sound and tone are beautiful, it’s a delight to for him to play and us to listen to. He is really pleased with his new Digital Piano and already embraced the sustain pedal–which he has never used before. We are very satisfied with this purchase.

Once again thank you for your excellent guide which helped us greatly with the choice of manufacturer–after making that decision the rest was pretty much price led.

Review by Jackie Waller (25/04/2012)

19) “I have come to rely upon the Yamaha brand for extreme reliability”

As an enthusiastic composer/MP3 site participant, entertainer and musician doing everything from wedding ceremonies to kids parties I have come to rely upon the Yamaha brand for extreme reliability. I have PSR keyboards that have been dropped on the floor and continued working without problems. Even the old Yamaha organs of years gone by seemed to be more durable than other manufacturers – although hardly sounding like a Hammond!

Anyhow, I bought the P95 to replace a P60 bought in 2006. Things have indeed moved on a lot. The slightly metallic sound of the P60 has gone altogether. The keyboard action actually feels better by far on the P95. It is an instrument that just begs to be played as opposed to just a portable gig instrument you leave in a bag until the
next booking.

I particularly appreciate the quite subtle voice of Piano 2 which allows exploration of Jazz Piano, mood and
innuendo beautifully. Of course I use a separate music stand for quick and secure page turning. Yamaha’s stands –
even on Clavinova always seem quite dire, with no depth and insufficient height. P95 also needs a rigid keyboard
bench as opposed to an X-stand for precise playing of works by Chopin, Debussy etc.

I like the way the plug sockets have been recessed on the back of the P95. So no-one can brush against them and
damage them. You can also place the P95 flush against an acoustic grand that may be cosmetically beautiful but
a shed to play. This is nice, as people expect to see you sat at a grand where one is available, even if it is
a load of junk

All looking good, and continuing my love affair with Yamaha going back more decades than I’d care to remember.

Review by Tony Gayle, Wilmslow, UK (28/04/2012)

20) “Overall, I am pleased with the purchase”

I have only had this piano for several days now, so I cannot give a detailed feedback as yet, but I shall try to say something useful.
I am a PhD student and I change accommodation every year so a portable digital piano was the only option. The reason why I chose Yamaha is two-fold. I have a different Yamaha model back in my parents house, CLP-230, and I absolutely adore it (I am not a great fun of a classical piano). Also, I read several reviews and P95 seemed like a decent choice. So what do I think about it now that I have it in my room?

1) It does not take up much space which is a huge advantage as my room is far from spacious.
2) I do like to feel/touch of the keyboard.
3) The sound quality is very good, but I always use headphones.
4) I have not had time and the urge to explore the recording option etc.
5) It was very easy to put it together. I managed on my own!
6) I bought a silver model, because I was worried that the black one would look too tacky. I believe that silver is so unusual for a musical instrument, that it distracts from looking at the details – which I would say is an advantage as the piano itself is not too charming – it is okay-looking.
7) I wish there was a small display which would tell me, say, which demo song is being played etc. I suppose Yamaha tried to make the piano as light as possible… mind you, “portable” does not mean “carry it on foot” but “light enough to take it downstairs to a car”.

Overall, I am pleased with the purchase, but I would like to stress that I am not a professional pianist or a musician. I play just for myself – it is solely my passion/a way of unwinding. But I would say this – if you do not need a portable piano then do not buy it but invest in a different model – they may cost more but it is worth it.

Review by Justyna, St Andrews, Scotland (16/05/012)

21) “The clatter of the keys can be heard”

The Yamaha P95 is just about adequate for general playing at home. Sound quality is OK, though it has a slightly synth sound about it. The speakers could be a bit bigger. its better when plugged into an amp. Playing with head phones is not good, the clatter of the keys can be heard which is distracting.

Review by Bill Orrell, Bournemouth, UK (20/06/2012)

22) “The volume is pathetic compared even to my cheap keyboard player”

I purchased a Yahama P95, it was a gift to our social club, but I have to say that I don’t think it was worth £600, not at all.  Playing the various voices on the keyboard does not sound, except a tiny bit, like the demonstration voices.

The volume is pathetic compared even to my cheap keyboard player. I was all for trying a digital but I think they are over-rated.

Review by Audrey Ann (07/09/2012)

23) “The sound isn’t as good as I expected from Yamaha”

Hi Graham Howard

I bought a P95, based in part on your recomendations, and I’m quite enjoying it, thank you.
The action is quite similar to my teacher’s real piano, but the sound isn’t as good as I expected from yamaha.
When using good quality headphones, I can hear a fair amount of mains buzz and digital sampling.

Review by Alan Sherif (21/09/2012)

24) “It has good clarity and tone”

Not having played (always quality accoustic) piano for years, I just wanted a good basic instrument, to play for myself and compose the odd item. The P95 fulfils these requirements admirably, with good clarity and tone. The keys have an authentic feel to me, up and down the keyboard.

There are 2 grand piano settings, 2 electric piano settings, jazz organ, pipe organ, strings, choir, harpsichord and vibraphone settings, any 2 of which can be combined. I didn’t want all of these, but they’re fun to use on occasion.
The X stand is solid and unfussy (I’ve secured piano to stand with velcro) but the sustain foot pedal (plug-in version) is very light and wanders in use. Of course, there is always the more expensive option of a more traditional piano frame with a fixed 3-pedal assembly to avoid this slight annoyance.
There are also sockets in the piano body for midi in/out and for headphones.

Review by Angus Macintyre (08/10/2012)

25) “I have been very satisfied with the Yamaha P-95”

As I am never going to be a brilliant pianist, I found Graham’s advice very useful for selecting a keyboard in an appropriate price range, and then selecting from the ‘Best Buys’ in that group.
I have been very satisfied with the Yamaha P-95 which I bought subsequently. Thank you.

Review by Peter Dodds (17/11/2012)

26) “I am very happy with the sound through the inbuilt speakers”

I bought a Yamaha P95 before I found your advice which I nevertheless found interesting in thinking about whether I’d made the right choice.
I would have liked an acoustic piano but living as I do on a boat that is not practical. I chose the Yamaha P95 because, due to lack of space I needed a stage piano and that seemed the cheapest option that was close enough to an acoustic in sound and feel to satisfy my needs as a beginner.  Amazon was the cheapest source I found at that time.
My previous musical experience is with harmonica (diatonic and chromatic) and I believe the important thing is to love the noise your instrument makes. I am very happy with the sound through the inbuilt speakers, particularly after setting the reverb option. I think recording and listening to yourself is extraordinarily useful when learning an instrument and the record feature makes that very easy. I am not interested in the other voices really but I had a listen and they’re OK. The inbuilt metronome works fine and is easy to set, though I prefer my old fashioned clockwork pendulum thingy.  If I had the space and a certainty that I would carry on with piano I would invest in a good quality reconditioned acoustic that would hold its value but for a raw beginner like myself this seems a brilliant option

Review by Chas Foster (30/11/2012)

27) “It has everything it needs, but it’s not too expensive”

I recently bought my new piano, and i can say I LOVE IT!
It has everything it needs, but it’s not too expensive. The ideal combination!
The touch and the sound (most important) are very good for a piano in its price range.
I firstly was stunned when i played it. It sounded so good! I think i’ve made the right choice. I also want to give many thanks to Graham Howard with his book ‘7 things you must know before buying a digital piano’ for making it a lot easier to decide what piano to buy.

Review by Jelmer, the Netherlands

 

>> For Yamaha P95 information, specifications and prices, click here