Pianists are spoilt with options when it comes to choosing their piano irrespective of their skill level and years of experience in playing the instrument. When we think of pianos, we have to think of Yamaha, for the brand is loaded with some of the best pianos in the world with extraordinary features. We should admit that there is absolutely no balance between the price of these pianos and their technical specifications.
Most pianists are awestruck by the features this portable range of pianos from Yamaha has to offer at such an amazing price and at a primitive size. Let us discuss the in and out of the Yamaha DGX-660 here along with its technical specifications here.
Table of Contents
- Yamaha DGX-660 Review 2023
- Quick Opinion by Larry
- Pros & Cons of the Yamaha DGX-660
- First Impression of DGX660
- The Keyboard
- Sound Quality and Volume Output
- Recording and Playback Feature
- Yamaha Education Suite – Your Personal Piano Teacher
- Yamaha DGX-660 Connectivity Features
- Other Features of DGX-660
- Alternatives of Yamaha DGX-660
- Final Verdict
Yamaha DGX-660 Review 2023
| Features | Rating |
| Performance and sounds | 9.6 |
| Easy to Assemble | 9.6 |
| Connectivity | 9.2 |
| Build Quality | 9.3 |
| Value for money | 9.6 |
Quick Opinion by Larry
You won’t find a better piano than this one at this price range. It’s a beast with high-class performance. Just make sure you assemble it carefully because it’s heavy, although it’s easy to assemble. Overall, a great piano with the most realistic sound.
Pros & Cons of the Yamaha DGX-660
What’s Best in Yamaha DGX-660 Piano?
- The piano room function makes it easy for the pianist to access piano-related settings easily.
- Its split and layering features help in creating the sound of two instrument sounds simultaneously at the same time.
- LCD screen to display the play notes
- Excellent connectivity options, that help amateurs to learn the songs as they play.
- The piano sounds are sampled from the Yamaha CFIIIS concert grand piano.
What’s Lacking in Yamaha DGX-660 Piano?
- Pretty heavy to carry
- The sustain pedal could have been better for the price
- The headphone jack is at the back and cannot be easily reachable.
| Number of Keys | 88 |
| Piano Sound | Pure CF Sound Engine |
| Weight | 61 lbs |
| Keyboard Type | Graded Hammer Standard keyboard |
| USB Connectivity | Yes |
| Polyphony | 192 |
Check out: Best Digital Pianos Under $700
First Impression of DGX660
The DGX-660 is a portable keyboard with 88 keys, packed with ample features for education, fun, and performance. It might sound like a grand 1000-pound acoustic piano, but it is very compact and absolutely portable. The piano is sold with the stand and weighs as less as 61 pounds (do take help if you have to move out in and out of the house). The dimensions of the piano are, 30 x 55 x 17.5 inches.
The portable series piano is available in stylish white and black colors with a synthetic wood finish on the stand. When you order the piano online, it comes as a compact package, reminding you that you have to do a bit of assembling, perhaps with the user manual. It is good that you leave the piano at rest after initial assembling so that it does not get moved and disturbed often.
Its control panel gives the impression of a very complicated console and its keys pertain to a number of keyboard features, including the music style and sounds. The different buttons on this console help the pianist to access various functions with a finger touch.
The best feature that we like the most about this piano is its LCD screen. This feature makes it extremely user-friendly as it displays the current settings on the piano, along with the notes of the song.
Check out: List of Best Yamaha Digital Pianos 2023
The Keyboard
The keys are of graded plastic and follow the hammer mechanism of the grand acoustic pianos. The keys are touch-sensitive, the harder you play, the louder the sound. There are four settings such as soft, hard, fixed, and medium to help you adjust the touch sensitivity and alter the keyboard to match your style. Thus the Yamaha DGX-660 comes as the best piano for beginners and students learning to play.
The GHS or the graded hammer standard action of the keyboard progresses from heavier to lighter i.e., the acoustic piano has a heavier touch at the left end and it gets lighter towards the right. The keys thus help the pianist to take excellent control over the expression and dynamics of the keyboard. The keys have a glossy finish with a matte, ensuring that you have an excellent grip over the keys, even when your fingers are moist.
Sound Quality and Volume Output
The Yamaha DGX 660 brags a pure CF sound engine and replicates the same sound source as that of the CFIIIS concert grand piano. This piano features about ten different piano sounds and holds the sounds of hundreds of other instruments as well. A pianist can choose from 554 instrument sounds pertaining to E.pianos, organs, trumpets, saxophones, bass guitars, accordions, strings, etc.
Its impressive library of sound effects can add a lot of variations and quality to your music concerts. The piano has about 41 reverbs helping you to alter the acoustics according to different environments such as rooms, concert halls, basements, canyons, small auditoriums, stages, etc.
To give a complete and magical performance on stage, you can also make use of its 44 chorus types. You can also add more effect with the 26 harmony notes to enhance the quality of your performance.
The pitch bend wheel is a unique feature of this piano that allows the pianist to recreate some interesting effects by bending the notes up and down. Its master equalizer feature helps you to alter the sound quality from soft and bright to powerful acoustic tunes.
Now you should have got clarity on why this piano has so many keys on its console. In short, you can create an entire music band with just this piano with its chorus, reverbs, and pitch bend features.
Speakers: There are four speakers in this piano, 2 x 12 cm and 2 x 5 cm along with two 6W amplifiers. So you can be sure of creating a rich and well-balanced sound, good enough to fill an entire room with blissful music. The intelligent acoustic control feature in this piano enhances the sound quality further as it adjusts sound frequencies to get them clear and consistent even at low volume levels.
Recording and Playback Feature
The DGX 660 renders the freedom for the pianist to record and playback their tunes in both the MIDI and the audio format. You can download files from the PC to the internal memory of the piano and play them or you can play the songs directly from the USB flash drive as well.
The internal flash memory of the piano allows the user to record and store up to five songs and six tracks for each song. It is also possible to transfer these files to a laptop, tablet, or smartphone and store it there. You can also share these files on social media and brag on your piano skills.
Also Read: Yamaha P121 Digital Piano Review
Yamaha Education Suite – Your Personal Piano Teacher
The YES function or the education suite from Yamaha helps you to practice up to 100 MIDI songs in either the left-hand or right-hand function and even as a both-hand lesson. In this protocol, half of the lesson will be played by you and the other half by the piano itself.
The display shows the notes for you to play and waits for you to strike the right chords. Only then will it playback. You can also choose your tempo and the piano will adjust the playback time accordingly to help you play the notes at the right timing. All such wonderful features of the DGX 660 will surely nourish the budding pianist inside you.
Yamaha DGX-660 Connectivity Features
This piano enjoys an array of connectivity features, and all of them lie at the rear panel of the keyboard, except the USB to device port.
- USB to host port: This helps in connecting the piano with the computer to exchange songs
- USB to the device: This port can hold a flash drive and help in exchanging files with the piano conveniently. You can import a number of songs you wish to learn to the piano this way.
- Headphone port: The stereo jacks help to connect the headphone with the piano to listen to songs without disturbing others.
- Input jack for mic: Through this jack, you can connect a microphone and sing with your tune for a complete performance. The Mic volume control buttons do their parts for the perfect music show
- There is also a mini-jack to connect an external audio device to hear its sounds with the help of the built-in speakers of the piano.
- Jacks for pedal units: There are separate jacks to connect with the sustain pedal or entire three-pedal units with this piano.
Other Features of DGX-660
The auto accompaniment feature of the DGX-660 helps you to add a number of other music styles with your piano notes. You can choose to use over 200 different music styles like Jazz, pop, etc.
The smart cord feature of the piano helps you to play the chords of the accompanying instruments perfectly, even if you are not sure of how to play them.
The metronome features, available with most of the pianos from Yamaha help in enhancing the accuracy of your play timing and speed. The transpose function helps to tune the pitch and the tone of the keyboard.
As we mentioned before, the piano ships with the stand, and also with a basic footswitch. You can upgrade to a three-pedal unit if you wish.
Alternatives of Yamaha DGX-660
Here are some of the best alternatives for Yamaha DGX-660 that you can consider choosing in 2023.
Final Verdict
The Yamaha DGX660 adapts to both beginners and professional piano players and we are sure even kids love to play and learn from this device. Why we say that this piano is incredible is that its features are far ahead of other piano brands in the market at this price point. We loved the full-weighted keyboard with 192-note polyphony and tone sampled from CFIIIS grand. We also hope you would also love this piano for sure.
