User Reviews of Yamaha P250 Digital Piano w/speakers

Pros: The most realistic sound and feel of a grand piano out of all digital keyboards I've tried (that's about a dozen keyboards, incl. Korg, Roland, Alesis, Suzuki, Kurzweil, etc.). Excellent built-in samples of organs, guitar, chorus, fine set of XG MIDI instrumwents and effects. Strings less than admirable though. Very sturdy, seems very reliable. Great built-in amplifier and speakers are more than adquate for in-home use (need external amp and speakers for stage performance, of course). Cons: Non-expandable in any way. No memory card capacity, no CD ROM, no HD (see Alesis Fusion), no sound expansion boards. Slow USB v.1.1. No 64-bit drivers available yet, so if you want to use it with 64-bit Windows, you need a 64-bit PC MIDI Interface. Yamaha Tech support not knowledgeable at all and quite careless and ignorant. Built-in synthesizer nice, but very limited, good for beginners to play with. Conclusion: This is a great digital grand piano for both a professional and beginner to use and enjoy. Could be also a very fine computer MIDI controller, but needs a separate 64-bit interface for 64-bit systems (hopefully Yamaha will create 64-bit drivers shortly). If you need a more modern, hight-tech unit with more features, try the newest Roland and Alesis models (which do not have as wonderful piano sound and feel like the P250, however).