UK Piano Page Piano Forum

Hi,
I started taking piano lessons8 months ago and in order to practice at home, I bought a Yamaha NP-30.
Now I would like to buy a better piano. Unfortunately I don't have money and the space to buy a mechanical one, so I will buy a digital one.
I like Yamaha CLP 320 but recently I also discovered the Behringer EUROGRAND EG2180-BK. I know that that Yamaha sounds good (at class I practice on a CVP-401), but I have no idea about the Behringer and I have no possibility to test it as the model doesn't exist in the shops from the city where I live. Besides, there is something else I noticed: Yamaha has GH keys while the Behringer... I am not sure, on their site is weighted hammer-action while on another site is just hammer action.

Can anyone help me? Did anyone have the chance to try both models?

I want a piano that sound as close as possible to a classical piano and the hammer action, if possible.

Any help will be appreciated.

Save your money up and buy the real thing. Its going to take up a similar space on the floor anyway.

Firstly, must say I've never tried a Behringer DP.
And secondly you may get more feedback from the Digital Piano forum.
However you’d be advised to proceed with caution, as many Behringer models are similar to the big names like Yamaha, Roland, but many reports I’ve read say that the quality is often lacking, so reliability may be questionable. Their pricing appears to be competitive, you get a lot of features for the price, so it’s probably true to say you get what you pay for.....
Remember the general golden rule with all keyboards whether digital or acoustic – always try before you buy! If you love the feel of the keyboard and the sounds, and not over concerned with durability, you may be ok. One recent report indicated that the prospective buyer couldn't try the model on display as it was defective.

If it were me, I'd prefer a Yamaha every time.

Yamaha is hard to beat for realistic GRADED hammer action keyboards with quality sound included. The CVP-401 would be outside the league of the Behringer EUROGRAND EG2180. Personally I have no experience of these keyboards and certainly have never seen one in the UK. Behringer produce a range of speakers and amplifiers and like them there are many other manufacturers of audio equipment that have dipped their toes into the music instrument production business also.

I went onto the Behringer website to view the stats on this instrument. As I read through the features, there are many indicators that this lies in the entry-level range. 64 note polyphony is typically associated with many entry-level instruments, most respectable mid-range instruments having around 128 polyphony. That however is a side-issue because there are good instruments that also only have 64 note polyphony but interestingly, there is no indication that the keyboard has a graded action. In other words, the keys get lighter as you move into the higher-pitched notes. Not all manufacturers include this feature in their piano-based instruments such as Kurzweil for example. "Weighted" and "Hammer Action" are important phrases to read in the specifications but "Graded" has not been included. This would be a concern as this feature is part of a piano's identity. For me, it has been the deciding factor between various instruments I have bought in the past.

You can listen to an audio sample for Musik Schmidt where a demo has been prepared. The descriptions are in German but interestingly the demonstrator refers to this instrument as being priced and designed suitably for beginners. This website usually provides an audio recording that does justice to the instrument. If this recording is consistent with others, then I would seriously go back to looking at the CLP range from Yamaha.

Can you get a change to try the Behringer model? If not, leave it alone and go for something that you know will suit you. Returning items from central Europe is a lot more hassle than getting them out of central Europe!