Yamaha YPG-625 Review
by Jeremy Schneider
(Tucson, AZ)
Yamaha YPG-625 Review
I've had my keyboard for a month or so, and played my Mom's YPG-625 several times before buying mine. I like it a lot. I've been playing casually for almost 30 years on an acoustic full upright piano, but I'm tired of tuning and keys getting sticky during humid weather. Therefore, I purchased the 625 mainly as a piano substitute for the price of about $650.
The 625 sounds quite nice out of it's own speakers. The Live Grand Piano sound is, I think, pretty amazing for a digital sound. I've yet to connect it to a sound system, but that should just make it even better. The other 500 voices are fun to play with as well.
The feel of the graded-hammer keyboard is great. For one, it's new and consistent and made to feel like a grand piano, compared to my old upright. But beyond that, the feel and dynamics are very piano-like, expressive and realistic. I can play faster on it than my upright. The one thing I'm not sure about is that the keys are slightly bouncy at both bottom-out and top-out under some conditions. They also make a little noise, mostly noticable when the volume is low.
Since I bought it, I've had some doubt about the adequacy of the 32-note polyphony, but that's all based on things I've read and my own paranoia. I haven't actually heard any ill effects from it being too low. Now I haven't used the 6-track sequencer or accompaniment features; the most demand I've placed on it is playing with "dual voice" turned on and even on some pretty fast stuff I don't hear it dropping notes. Yamaha released a new version of this keyboard, the YPG-635, with 64-note polyphony, but I opted to save $150 on the closeout deals on the 625 and so far it's adequate.
Other "electric" features such as transpose, volume control, transportability and headphone capability are very handy.
In summary, I really like the feel and sound of this keyboard and find it to be a good replacement for the acoustic piano at a great price.
End of Yamaha YPG-625 Review
