I'm a beginning piano player looking for a budget digital piano. Which one would you folks suggest - the Casio CDP-100 or the Yamaha NP-30? Also, are there any others worth considering in this price range? I think I can cough up just about enough for the Casio Privia PX-120 as well. Is it worth the extra money over the CDP-100?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Atriya and welcome to the forums. L:ots of people will tell you to go for an acoustic rather than a digital but I won't! I think that the digitals have so many advantages over a second hand acoustic at that price. The
Yamaha YDP S30 Digital Piano is a very useful starter piano at costs around £400 (including delivery) if you look around and check out the internet stores too. It isn't a concert grand but it will never go out of tune and it will let you play at all sorts of anti-social hours through headphones too. I am not a fan of Casio DPs. Have fun with your new hobby.

I have tried keyboards and digital pianos from all the main manufacturers and think that this side of several thousand pounds expenditure, Yamaha do the next best thing to a "real" piano.

I eventually chose a Yamaha P80

Key factors for me were:

Feel of the keys: Second best to Fatar Studiologic
Reasonable piano sound: Close to best. I actually like the quality of Korg's sound a little better - but it does not sustain
Volume proportional to key speed: Not quite the same relationship as an acoustic, but good enough
Good sustain on bass notes: This is where much of the competition fell down
Reasonable pedal effects: This wiped out most of the rest - on the Yamaha you can retake notes silently and release the pedal - and they continue to sound. I cannot do this on any other keyboard
Easy set-up: Just switch on and go. No separate devices to power up and initialize
Reliable: It just works
64 note polyphony: 32 is barely enough - 64 is fine
Built in speakers: Again for ease of use. This may not matter to you. In any case you can still plug in external amps and speakers for a more powerful and/or more realistic sound
Light enough to be easily portable: Fine - but I am over 6 feet tall and weigh nearly 200 lbs! My wife can hardly lift it. But anything significantly lighter will not have anything remotely like a real-piano action