First Impressions
Initially, the authentic piano sound of this instrument stands out. With the Yamaha DGX 660 , you would immediately get the sense that you are in front of a premium level keyboard that is suitable for use of professional musicians and advanced keyboardists. What immediately stood out for me on the surface was the look and feel of the keys on the DGX 660 – they closely resemble those from a real piano! Even the red lining on top of the keys, which you would normally find on grand pianos in elegant ballrooms, is present on this keyboard. The control panel of this keyboard is more spacious than many portable grand pianos out there, making way for a a bigger LCD screen and a lot of controls and functions without cluttering the interface.
Now let’s talk about the key features. There are a lot features, actually, but I’ll touch on the ones that I think are the main highlights of this keyboard (then we’ll look at the pros and cons later):
Key Features
- 192-Note Polyphony – This is a far cry from the usual 64-note or 128-note polyphony found in most mid-range to high-end digital pianos out there. The DGX-660 went out of its way to give you a whooping 192-note polyphony! With only ten fingers total from both of your hands, it’s virtually impossible to use up all 192 notes even if you layer your keyboard with 2-3 sounds or voices. So yeah, basically, this is a great thing to have (knowing that your piano has a virtually limitless number of notes to play).
- 88 Graded hammer weighted keys – Personally, I find it more difficult to play with truly weighted keys, because I learned the piano from a synthesizer and have always played with non-weighted keys for 15+ years. However, for those of you who have classical training or are more accustomed to graded hammer keys, the Yamaha DGX-660 is good news for you. For those who play the same way like me though, this might be a big caveat.
- Six-track recorder – This keyboard comes with the ability to record multiple tracks and layer them together to create a full song or instrumental. It’s especially useful for music creators who not only play piano, but also produce their own music tracks for professional or commercial use. Personally, I’m not much into recording tracks but recorders and sequencers are always nice to have for those emergency situations where you need to record your playing (like when someone asked you to accompany a live singing performance for an event but you can’t be there personally).
- Built-in speakers – Probably one of its ‘thank God they have it’ features. The built-in speakers make it easy for anyone to play the piano without having to connect to a PA system or amplifier. This is why the DGX-660 can be used for stage performances, but can also be used for practicing at home or playing for a family audience.
- Adjustable Touch Response – What I find really cool is that you can set the touch response ‘level’ of this instrument. You can choose between soft, medium, hard, and fixed touch sensitivity. It all depends on your preference, your training level, and finger strength.
So for me, those are the key features of this piano. There are dozens of many other features and functions that you can tinker with, and you’ll all get to know them once you play the Yamaha DGX 660 Portable Piano for yourself.
I’m not here though, to simply glorify this product and talk only about its good qualities. So without any sort of bias, let’s delve into the pros and cons of the DGX-660 so you can truly make an informed buying decision about it:
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- High quality, performance level sounds and voices . Of course, as an experienced keyboardist, this is one of my main concerns (and probably yours too)! There’s nothing more annoying than an expensive keyboard with lots of great features but with disappointing, low quality sounds. But I’ve found that the Yamaha DGX-660 does not disappoint with the way it sounds. It really delivers. The ‘Natural Grand’ sound, which is its very basic entry level voice, sounds pretty much like the ones used by popular jazz pianists you may know, like Bruce Hornsby, Chick Corea or Jeff Lorber. It’s got a certain fluidity and fullness around the sound of the keys, without sounding too piercing to the ears or too hammered in its attack. I’ve got nothing negative to say about the Yamaha piano sound, particularly for the DGX 660. Definitely it has some performance level sounds in there. Hands down.
- Graded hammer keys pretty much mimics a real piano feel. If you’re a fan of the acoustic grand piano, the DGX-660 would be a perfect choice for you since it mimics the hardness and feel of the classic grand piano.
- Spacious control panel, no clutter. I particularly like the control panel of the DGX-660. It has lots of controls and knobs to tinker around with, but they are placed in such a way that doesn’t clutter the look of the entire instrument. This is a major plus for me because I have a secret dislike for keyboards with seemingly robotic controls. It’s too distracting for me to have lots of buttons that are cluttered together. With the DGX 660 though, the control panel has lots of vertical space. In short, the interface is more user friendly than many high end keyboards I’ve seen in the market.
Cons:
- Internal memory is only 1.7MB. This is a major drawback. The very fact that this piano has a six track recorder makes it even more disappointing. I personally think that an internal memory of 1.7MB is a little bit on the low side for an expensive portable keyboard like this one. I totally understand that this can be remedied by using an external hard drive with lots of space, but still 1.7MB internal memory is too small. Of course I want to save my recorded songs on an external drive, but still I want to keep several tracks or songs inside the keyboard for easy reference and editing later. Having the need to save them externally all the time is quite a hassle.
- A bit pricey. Because this is a moderately high end digital piano, don’t expect that it will come at a cheap price. In 2017, you would have to shell out upwards of $700 for a product of this caliber (check your local music store or dealer for the latest prices, but much better to compare prices on Amazon). If you are a professional musician though, or someone who is active in the music industry and its business side, consider the high cost of this instrument as a reasonable investment. You can’t go wrong with a digital piano that delivers good sound quality and which happens to have a plethora of useful functions and features as well.
- Bulkier than most portable grand pianos in this range. This piano weighs a total of 46 pounds. While this may not be extremely heavy to carry around, this is way higher than other 88-key digital pianos in this category. The DGX-660 weighs roughly double the weight of the Casio PX-360 (26.2 lbs), and the Yamaha P115 (26 lbs). This means you’ve got to be prepared to give extra effort in moving the DGX-660 from one place to another. For easy carrying, you might actually need a companion to bring this piano, especially if you’re travelling far places for a gig. Personally, I don’t recommend moving heavy instruments around a lot. I’ve found that this increases the risks of scratches and damages. So for the DGX-660, just be prepared to give an extra level of care because it is slightly heavier than other similarly priced keyboards in the market.
Performance Ratings
QUALITY OF SOUNDS AND VOICES – 9 out of 10
I give this instrument a score of 9/10 for the quality of sounds and voices because based on my listening, the available sounds really do come across as top notch. It has no traces of sounding like a ‘fake’ or much worse a cheap imitation of the tone of other acoustic instruments. As I’ve said earlier in this article. Below is an actual sampling of the DGX 660, using the natural grand piano, strings, electric piano, rhodes, pads, harpsichord, guitar, and many others. It fairly demonstrates just how versatile this keyboard is in terms to its plethora of sounds. Heck even the saxophone effect sounds so authentic! Same with the Hammond Organ effect, it’s on fire! Watch this demo:
FEATURES AND FUNCTIONS – 9 out of 10
Again, I give this keyboard a score of 9/10 for its features and functions. Aside from the key features I mentioned earlier, the DGX 660 has a lot of other tricks up its sleeve, such as the following:
- Music database – 320 with accompaniment mode
- Yamaha Education Suite
- Metronome
- Built in speakers
- 100 preset songs
- Dual and split mode
- Number of voices – 151 + 15 Drum/SFX Kits + 388 XGlite
I didn’t get a chance to sample all the other features and functions, but based on what I’ve seen so far, these specs are more than enough to satisfy any passionate keyboardist out there. Frankly, if the features and capabilities of this piano don’t excite you, then I don’t know what will (ok, you know I love you right? Group hug).
USER FRIENDLINESS – 8.5 out of 10
I give this keyboard a score of 8.5 out of 10 because the user controls aren’t confusing even for a beginner. There is even a full list of available sounds on the interface. This way, the keyboard player won’t get lost trying to navigate between different sounds. However, I did not give this digital piano a perfect score for user friendliness, because I think more advanced features such as the multi-track sequencer, dual/split mode, etc., all require a learning curve for beginner musicians.
PRICE – 6 out of 10
Price is a major downside for this portable piano. Obviously, it eliminates itself from consideration if you are on a budget of $500 or less (this keyboard is in the $700+ range). Frankly, for a $500 budget or below, there are DOZENS of portable keyboards that may not equal or surpass the quality of the DGX-660, but provides good alternatives when it comes to sounds, features, and functions. So yeah, it’s a little bit of a bummer that this keyboard is a little bit more expensive than we wanted to be.