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This article is from the Digital Pianos FAQ, by Isako Hoshino rmmpfaq@yahoo.com with numerous contributions by others.

4] What are the drawbacks? (Digital Pianos)

(1) Sound quality. No matter how well the piano sound is
sampled, you can never truly get away from the
"amplified", "digital" sound quality. As digital
sampling technology improves, the gap between the
acoustic and digital sound may diminish, but digital
sound will never equal or be superior to those of an
acoustic.

(2) Inability to produce a "color" to the tone. In an
acoustic instrument, by using various playing techniques,
you can produce almost infinite kinds of "color" to the
tone. Digital pianos can only produce sounds that were
originally sampled (recorded), and thus very limited in
terms of variety in the sound produced. For a very
accomplished pianist, the limited sound produced by the
digital piano can be disturbing.

(3) As with any electronic mechanisms, digital pianos can
develop problems like damaged spring action on the keys,
bad contact, bad amplifier, bad speaker, etc. Digital
pianos in general are considered relatively robust, but
there has been reports of key action break down, hissing
and crackling speaker noise developing, and having
difficulty in getting it fixed correctly.

(4) As with any electronics, the technology used to create
the current digital piano may (well, almost certainly
will) become obsolete in the near future. Whereas, in an
acoustic piano, one can assume if you buy a good piano
and take good care of it, your grandchild or great-
grandchild can still play it and will find someone who
can maintain your piano. This is not necessarily the
case with digital pianos. Digital pianos haven't been
around long enough to really make a good case study of
its longevity. One reason to purchase digital pianos
from a reputable company.

 

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• prev: 3] What are the advantages of buying a digital piano as opposed to an acoustic one?
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• next: 5] Should I buy a digital piano or an acoustic piano?

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