Awesome! (Roland RD-300SX)

Member Name: totally_organic

Product:	Roland RD-300SX
Date:	24/01/09 (84 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great hammer action

Disadvantages: Pretty heavy, non-piano sounds a little weak

I bought this digital piano second hand last week. Wow! I had been desperate for a digital piano for some time, and had been scouring ebay almost daily, searching for a bargain. Alas bargains on ebay these days come around as often as good comedy drama on BBC1. I ended up buying this directly from a real person, with real cash, and I was not disappointed.

The 88 keg progressive hammer action is great - of course it doesn't feel exactly like a real piano, but then if you want that action you have to buy a real piano, and if you live in a top floor flat like I do then that isn't really an option. But the action is similar. They've also put a little bit of red felt in that runs across the top of the keys like that found on pianos which is a nice touch.

The piano sounds are excellent. The main piano is just beautiful. It responds as you would expect, and does not fail to impress. 2 knobs for lseperate low and high tone equalisation is a nice touch and does make a difference.

Less impressive are the other sounds on the keyboard. Strings and brass are particularly weak, but then I didn't buy a digital piano to have convincing strings and brass.

Like any good quality digital piano, it does not have onboard speakers. As I currently don't have enough money for an amp this means running it through my mini-hifi system which really doesn't do the piano much in the way of a favour. But the fullness of sound is heard with headphones.

I am yet to fully explore this little baby - having downloaded the manual for it I realised it has many more functions than are apparent from simply playing with the buttons. Various button pushing combinations open up a world of new features. Many of them appear a little tricky to get to which is a shame, but then if there was a button for each feature it would lose its sleek and elegant appearance.

In summary, I'm delighted I bought this. I'm delighted I didn't just go and buy the new EP880 (significantly more limited). A brilliant piece of kit.. I shall update you if I change my mind, but I don't see it happening!

Summary: A brilliant digital piano.