Yamaha Arius YDP-144 Digital Piano - Classic and elegant home piano for beginners or hobbyists, in black

Product Information

This type of upward force is not at all what real acoustic key actions do and feel like and it's something I don't personally care for. Much like the YDP-144, the YDP-164 is a good digital piano, diminished slightly by its less-than-stellar controls. I feel that Yamaha really missed a great opportunity to offer built-in Bluetooth support, especially since many of their competitors often offer this as a standard feature. Since it is identical to the music rest on the YDP-143, I have the same complaint that it’s neither wide enough nor tall enough.

As far as connectivity is concerned, both digital pianos have headphone jacks and USB connection capabilities. Although sounds are not necessarily the main advantage of the YDP-144, as in it doesn’t have a very large number of sounds, the ones that are included are very high quality. Most of the in-depth features of the YDP-164 are accessed via key combinations, which are especially cumbersome if you’re used to the displays and detailed controls found on other digital pianos and on practice keyboards like Yamaha’s PSR range. The requirement of a separate dongle to access the well-designed Smart Pianist app also hampers the experience somewhat.Keeping in mind that one is a home console piano and the other a portable but still bottom of the line digital piano, the speaker systems are not that bad.

Besides these three main acoustic piano sounds, the Yamaha YDP-144 also has seven further sounds or voices, as follows: String Organ, Jazz Organ, Pipe Organ, Harpsichord, Vibraphone, DX Electric Piano and Electric Stage Piano. With Yamaha's CFX concert grand piano sound as a built-in Voice, experience a rich expressive playing feel with the GHS keyboard. Thisvoice offers up sparkling highs with a resonant, powerful low end, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest concert grands of modern times. It’s also a big improvement on the predecessor, maybe the biggest improvement according to my opinion.

Reverb intensities can be modified in increments of one, affecting the room/hall size and decay times of the reverb to suit the needs of the song. The ARIUS YDP-144 is an affordable digital piano, perfect for students or hobbyists looking for an attractive instrument for their home. Some of the functions discussed here are not accessible via the Smart Pianist app, but in general, those are some lesser used options which you won’t commonly need.