Great looking digital piano -- Roland Kiyola?

August 25, 2022 2:42 PM

I am in the market for a digital piano that will also look nice (important) and is somewhat compact. My top pick now is the Roland Kiyola but hoping to find something cheaper.

We have had a beginner keyboard for piano lessons in my house (kids and adult) and it's time to move to a better digital setup that plays more like a proper piano. (Must be digital because of neighbors/space.)

Because we have such a small home, we need something that will be reasonably compact and beautiful as we will be looking at it all the time. We're fairly minimalist to make our space work, so the piano somehow has to also look pretty good.

I'm looking at the Roland Kiyola from MOMA which looks like it would satisfy my piano and aesthetic preferences.

But it's so expensive! Does anyone have any suggestions of anything else that might suit?

Thank you!

posted by heavenknows to Shopping (10 answers total)

Is the natural wood finish part of the aesthetic appeal? Perhaps the Roland F701?
posted by btfreek at 2:53 PM on August 25, 2022 [1 favorite]

Roand, Yamaha, Korg, and Kawai are the main manufacturers of those types of pianos. Numerous online retailers carry all of them. Here's Sweetwater's page. Sort by ascending price.

There are also companies that make wooden shells for digital pianos, so you could always buy an inexpensive one and put a shell around it.
posted by jonathanhughes at 4:31 PM on August 25, 2022

Also, that Kiyola appears to be a partnership between Roland and a high end Japanse furniture designer, and only available through MOMA and is priced accordingly. Roland certainly uses the same electronics, keybed, and piano samples as they do in other models of theirs, so you'd only be paying for the shell. The F701 above would be a good choice if you want that look, and I bet it sounds and feels nearly identical to the Kiyola.
posted by jonathanhughes at 4:41 PM on August 25, 2022 [4 favorites]

This Donner has a similar look.
posted by music for skeletons at 4:53 PM on August 25, 2022

Response by poster: The Roland F701 is really interesting -- thank you! I feel out of my depth in assessing how good these are -- I might have to go to an actual store (gasp!)

Open to any other ideas, and thank you!
posted by heavenknows at 5:44 PM on August 25, 2022

Yes, that Sweetwater page looks like a good starting point, pretty much anything there will probably do the job. One of the only exceptions is the Yamaha Piaggeros, which if you look closely do not have the right kind of action. (A keyboard that's designed to imitate a piano's action will usually be described with a term that has "hammer" in it somewhere.) Nothing there is poor quality, it's just a question of tradeoffs (price, aesthetics, features, how far they go towards imitating a real piano's behavior, etc.)
posted by bfields at 6:18 PM on August 25, 2022

The Roland F701 is also available in two other colors, black and white
posted by TimHare at 9:48 PM on August 25, 2022

I might have to go to an actual store (gasp!)

I'd recommend it if you can - I went digital piano shopping a few years ago and I was surprised how different they all were, even given I knew little about them and had hardly played for years. From the action of the keys, to the feel and texture of the plastic, to the quality of the sound.

Take the headphones you'd use at home, so that you don't feel self conscious, and so you hear what they'd be like at home. (Also, mine sounds much better through headphones compared to its built-in speakers.) Take some sheet music that you know, and take some time.
posted by fabius at 5:14 AM on August 26, 2022 [2 favorites]

The Kawai VPC1 is pretty, and has a top-of-the-line grand piano feel. The one consideration is that it's a midi keyboard controller, so you need a separate midi sound module or laptop and speakers to provide the actual sounds.
posted by umbú at 11:36 AM on August 26, 2022

I just ran across this new Casio and it reminded me of your question: https://www.casio.com/us/electronic-musical-instruments/product.PX-S7000BK/

Also pricey, but not as much as the Kiyola. Just going by the pictures--it seems to be just your basic portable slab-shaped digital, but with a unique stand and aesthetics that might suit you better than those things usually do.

I haven't played one, but I have an older Casio Privia. As piano imitations go, they seem pretty good.
posted by bfields at 7:47 AM on September 8, 2022