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Yamaha DGX500's Reputation
The Reviews

Yamaha DGX500 - WOW!

This is my first Yamaha keyboard, and I'm impressed. I've owned other brands, but I've never had anything this good before. The sounds are great!

I play weekend gigs and I've been carrying around a 90 pound monster. With the DGX500 I won't bust a gut before I start the gig. The floppy drive is great for loading and storing MIDI files, and makes my job as the keyboardist a lot easier. Great job Yamaha.

Nikko.
Yamaha DGX500 ROCKS!!!

I finally got this keyboard after ordering from some European website in June 2002! It was definitely worth the wait. I've had it for about a few hours now and it rocks! The full size keys are nicely weighted and the included sustain pedal is a pleasant plus. The sound quality is actually pretty good; I bought some RCA phono cords to hook up to some other speakers, but they're really not necessary.

I also opted to purchase the optional usb connection for the keyboard to computer. . . We'll see if it's worth it. Aside from that, I'm really pleased with this georgeous piece of technology. The LCD screen is amazing in that it has left-hand and right-hand bars and it displays the notes you hit--truly amazing. There seem to be a plethora of piano styles, voices, songs etc. . . I'm not going to bed tonight!

I recommend this full-size piano keyboard to anyone just starting out learning or to the die-hard pianist. Oh, and the included stand is decent. . . Albeit a bit cheap on the materials, but hey, it's 2002.


(5 stars) Great Instrument!!, June 2, 2003

Reviewer: rwholcomb from Richmond, Va.

A terrific instrument, pound for pound, than any out there for sale. With 88 keys, educational software, many voices, etc. there's nothing better for the money plus you get Yamaha quality.

(4 stars) Great value, April 15, 2003

Reviewer: ralphvirus2 from Boston, MA

I was looking for something I could put in my little apartment and be able to move if and when I had to, and I could afford. My girlfriend/roommate was a music major, and thus very picky about the way an instrument feels and sounds.

We had our musical choices narrowed down to this keyboard and a digital piano. After playing this instrument in the store, we decided that for the money, you just can't beat it.

This unit runs about half the price of a digital keyboard, and while I agree that the weighting of the keys is not very significant (hence 4 stars out of 5), the sound I think is outstanding. Not only the grand piano sound, but also a good percentage of the voices (out of 614, of course a few of them are subpar).

On top of all this, the lesson feature is wonderful. I don't know how to play piano or read music or anything, but the lesson feature teaches you how to play any of the 100 songs pre-programmed into the keyboard. I've only had it about 3 days, and I'm learning a lot faster than I would have thought.

So if you're looking for an extremely versatile instrument that won't break your bank, this is definitely for you. If you want something that plays just like a piano, then buy a piano. But I can't recommend this product enough.

Excellent keyboard with a few minor flaws, February 11, 2003

(4 stars) Reviewer: Paul Wanless

I had been looking for a piano for about 17 months when I ran across this model, purely by chance, at my local electronics store. I tell you that you will not get a better deal anywhere than what this model has to offer. Not only does this model have all 88 keys, but the piano sound quality is absolutely outstanding. The rest of the voices...drums, winds, electronic piano, and rhythm sequences (plus hundreds more), all sound realistic enough to provide an excellent mix of sounds for recording. I have no trouble with the various other functions I discovered while playing with this keyboard...chord lessons, music dictionary, rhythm setting, or music database activation. This is an absolutely MARVELOUS keyboard for the price and is great whether you are a beginner just learning or an advanced synth player.

Now the reason it has 4 stars instead of 5. First, I must agree with the reviews I see here that the keys are not as weighted as they could be. Second, the main piano sound, although excellent, is just a bit too soft. I found I had to turn the volume up to 3/4 of max to hear a good semblance of a grand piano sound. This wouldn't be a problem, except the auto-accompaniment will drown out the piano melody if you turn it on, and adjusting the accompaniment volume is a minor pain because it reverts back to its default setting when you turn the unit off. Finally, the pedal included with this keyboard tends to go slightly awry at times because it is not like your typical piano pedal. When I tried to use it, my foot slipped off it occasionally...although that might be because I have a carpet and not a hard floor where the pedal is.

However, buying an extra speaker and a new piano pedal, both readily available from Yamaha, corrected both problems amazingly well. Once I added those, I had as close to a perfect instrument as you could ever hope to have. Now if only I could weight those keys somehow...

Overall, a unit I highly recommend and an excellent buy.

A great keyboard for almost everyone, November 21, 2002

(4 stars) Reviewer: Rob Tarr from Floyds Knobs, IN USA

Yamaha has made an excellent product, here.

I will grant, right away, that if you compare the sound and feel of this keyboard to a REAL piano or even a keyboard that costs two or three times as much, you will be disappointed.

HOWEVER, given that the price point on this item is what it is, there's lots to be excited about.

The keys are weighted -- not as heavily as a real piano, but they feel MUCH meatier than the lower-end models in this product line (the DGX202 and the DGX300). The fact that the keys are not fully weighted cost the keyboard a half of a star on my rating.

The grand piano voice is outstanding. I'm sure you would be able to tell the difference between it and a real grand piano, but it is still an excellent sound.

The piano voice is the most important, naturally, but there are other voices that are very rich sounding as well - there's a great electric piano, some good synth sounds, an amazing flute, and even some good organs (though still nothing quite like a B3).

The sequencing function seems very intuitive and adequate, though I'm sure you have more options if you get Yamaha's XG Works software (for an extra cost) and a MIDI connection to your PC. This cost the keyboard the other half-star that brought it down from from 5 stars to 4.

The bottom line is this -- if you have lots more money to spend than this item costs, it's worth it to check out higher-priced models and compare them to the DGX500, but if you've only got enough to afford the DGX500, I don't believe you'll be disappointed in this keyboard at all.

I'm not.