[Review comparison] YAMAHA P115 VS CASIO PX160 Comparison - Feiteng Music Center Hong Kong Store

Foreword:
As the largest musical instrument manufacturer in the world, YAMAHA is also the first electronic musical instrument company to set up factories in China. Its advantages in production management and quality control are incomparable to many musical instrument manufacturers that have entered China afterward. This year, yamaha launched the upgraded version of the p105 electric piano, the p115. It can be said that the P115 is a continuation of the Yamaha brand and the quality of the P-series electric pianos. Although the appearance is almost the same as the P-105, the interior has been greatly improved.
The following is the unboxing video of the Taiwan Music Store:


Outer packaging:
The P115 looks thicker than the average electric piano packaging.



Exterior:
P115 still uses the appearance of P105. This is the same as the upgrade strategy of the P series in recent years. For example, the appearance of the previous generation P85 and P95 has basically remained unchanged. Although the appearance of the P115 is the same as the previous generation P105, I have to praise the workmanship of the YAMAHA products again. It is impeccable in the products of the same level. The consistency of the 88 keys is very good, the gaps are small and even, and there is no slack. The feel of the volume slider and panel buttons is also very good, and the metal grille of the speaker is also very meticulous. The interface on the back of the piano adopts a deep design, and the plug will not take up extra space and will not be bent excessively because it is placed against the wall. The speakers of the piano are oriented upwards and downwards, which is very suitable for families to be placed against the wall. I have compared other brands of electric pianos with the same price at the exhibition and piano store. The appearance and workmanship of YAMAHA can be said to be very outstanding in terms of humanized design and exquisiteness. Although the same shell mold as the P105 is used, YAMAHA has still made some improvements in the details of the panel printing. First, the YAMAHA Logo originally on the left has been moved to the center position, which is more beautiful and beautiful; secondly, it was originally distributed in the upper and lower rows of the tone direct selection buttons. The timbre names have all been moved above the buttons, making them more visually focused and distinguishable, and less prone to wear and tear.


This is just the main unit of the P115, without the dedicated fixed frame and three-pedal assembly









keyboard:
The keyboard structure of the P115 is the same as that of the P105. It is a Yamaha GHS keyboard. The GHS keyboard is characterized by low key noise and lighter bounce. I personally feel that the disadvantage is that the key travel is slightly shorter (the depth of the keyboard is pressed down to the end), and the keyboard lacks Some heavy feeling, measured by calipers, the key travel of P115 keys is about 1.2 cm, which is less than that of a certain brand of electric piano products. It may be the difference in this point that causes the difference in playing experience. But in fact, the slightly shallower keystroke has little effect on the actual performance. After all, Yamaha electric pianos below 6,000 yuan and 88-key economical synthesizer MOXF8 all use GHS keyboards. Compared with the electric piano products of about 4,000 yuan, the GHS keyboard is still a good choice. The black keys of the P115 and P105 are both frosted and non-slip. The official mentions that the black keys of the P115 have been improved, but I did not find much difference. Maybe this subtle difference is really not found by people with thick lines such as me. .

Tone:

Compared with the first generation P105, the biggest improvement of the P115 this time is in terms of sound and functions. First of all, the number of polyphony has been greatly increased. Although the 128-voice polyphony of the P105 is enough for electric piano performance, the P115 has been upgraded again in terms of the maximum polyphony, reaching 192-voice polyphony! It guarantees that there will be no dropouts even when playing a large number of notes when the 2 voices are layered.
Improvements in piano and electric piano tones are mainly reflected in the further optimization of the main piano sound, the addition of a warmer Mellow Grand piano sound, and the removal of a softer FM electric piano sound on the P105. The total number of sounds remains the same. For 14 timbres, this upgrade method still meets the needs of most users.
The quality of the piano tone is indeed very subjective, and it is a matter of opinion. The main piano tone of the P115 is pure and delicate, and it is more suitable for playing classical and popular. The midrange and treble areas are very good, clean and thorough, and the wood smell is relatively strong. You can also feel a good sense of space when you press the damper pedal to play. The bass range may be to match the sound of the piano itself, lacking some low frequencies.

I specially wrote 2 piano pieces for this P115 evaluation, which were performed with the piano sound of the P115. You can listen to the sound of the P115 first :

About Life :
EVO:

P115's three piano voice demo auditions:

Grand Piano sound audition:
Bright Piano Grand Piano Voice Audition:
Mellow Piano grand piano sound audition:


Although the sound engine of the P115 and the previous generation P105 are both PURE CF, after comparing the P105 and the P115, it is found that there are some differences in the sense of hearing. YAMAHA has obviously made some improvements to the piano sound of the P115. The piano sound of the P115 is more emotionally layered, thicker, and the high frequency is relatively clearer, while the P105 is slightly stiff and flat in comparison. Of course, this is also related to the improvement of the P115 speaker, because after the Connecting the piano to the monitor speakers does not make as much difference as listening directly to the piano. The following is a comparison of Chopin's Nocturne recorded directly on P115 and P105.

P115 Grand Piano "Nocturne" Audition:
P105 Grand Piano "Nocturne" Audition:

The price of YAMAHA electric pianos ranges from thousands to tens of thousands. According to different product positioning, their main piano sounds are also differentiated to a certain extent. In addition to the piano sound, the electric piano sound is also the highlight of YAMAHA electric pianos. The P115 has a built-in FM electric piano sound, which is the same as the P105, which is also a selling point since the P105, because this FM electric piano sound is unique to YAMAHA. Another Stage EP tone is a Rhodes electric piano tone. Apparently, YAMAHA has upgraded this tone on the P115, making it more oily and three-dimensional, and the sampling under high pressure is also better. The third electric piano sound is the Wurly electric piano sound that our Chinese users do not use frequently. But since the P115 added a piano sound, a DX electric piano sound was also removed for this purpose. All in all, the electric piano sound of the P115 has reached professional studio level.

DX E.Piano electric piano sound audition:
Stage E.Piano sound audition:
Outside :
Vintage E.Piano Electric Piano Voice Audition:

Compared with the previous generation P105, the jazz organ of the P115 is also improved. It can be used with the LP5A three pedals to switch the rotation speed of the jazz organ rotary speaker. Of course, there are not many opportunities for Chinese users to use organ sounds.

Jazz Organ Jazz Organ Voice Audition:
Rock Organ rock organ sound audition:

The P115 has only one string sound, which is the same as the P105. Audition:

Strings String Voice Audition:

Yamaha is unique in the pedal handling of string sounds. When playing strings with the sustain pedal, the sound of all fingers off the key will have the effect of automatic attenuation of the sustain in the pedal state. This processing can make the playing of strings not easy to be "smeared", especially when the piano and strings are superimposed. is more commonly encountered. This treatment seems to be present only on Yamaha products at the moment. Here's how a piano layered string will play when using the pedals:

String sound and piano sound playing audition:


Several other tones are the same as P105, and the following is the audition: Harpsichord harpsichord tone audition:

Pipe Organ sound audition:
Vibraphone Vibraphone Voice Audition:
Wood Bass sound audition:
E. Bass electric bass sound audition:

My feeling about the tone of the P115 is: the overall taste is very "right", very moderate, widely applicable, and very classic. As a major label of traditional electronic keyboards, YAMAHA can be said to have an impeccable grasp of sound. For an electric piano with only a dozen or so timbres, the small number of timbres means that each timbre must be very positive and has a wide range of applications. , in order to hold up a day.



Rhythm and piano accompaniment:
In addition to the basic functions of sound stacking, keyboard splitting, duo performance, transposition, metronome, MIDI recording and other common electric pianos, the P115 is unique and different from other traditional electric pianos. It comes with 14 rhythm patterns. Accompanied by 10 pianist styles. We can play more rhythmic music with different styles of drum rhythms, or we can add piano accompaniment of different limbs to our performance by playing different chords and using the pianist style accompaniment function. These two functions have actually been added to the P105, but the rhythm of the P115 automatically adds the Intro pattern (prelude drum section) and Ending pattern (end drum section) at the beginning and end of the rhythm, allowing the performance to enter a constant loop rhythm There's an extra introduction before, and a different closing drum segment at the end of the performance to add to the performance. In addition, P115 has updated 3 rhythm patterns and added four additional rhythm patterns on the basis of P105. The styles of rhythms are more diverse, especially some rhythms suitable for more lyrical types of performances have been added. The rhythm update of P115 is embodied as: removed The three rhythm patterns of Triplet Beat, March, and Waltz on the P105 have added seven rhythm patterns of 8Beat2, 16Beat2, Disco, Latin Pop, Shuffle, 6/8 Slow Rock, and 16Beat Shuffle. Among the 10 pianist styles, the March style was removed and it became 8 Beat Ballad. But unfortunately, the rhythm pattern of P115 and the pianist accompaniment cannot be used at the same time, so it cannot be used as a complete automatic accompaniment.

Rhythm and piano accompaniment:
In addition to the basic functions of sound stacking, keyboard splitting, duo performance, transposition, metronome, MIDI recording and other common electric pianos, the P115 is unique and different from other traditional electric pianos. It comes with 14 rhythm patterns. Accompanied by 10 pianist styles. We can play more rhythmic music with different styles of drum rhythms, or we can add piano accompaniment of different limbs to our performance by playing different chords and using the pianist style accompaniment function. These two functions have actually been added to the P105, but the rhythm of the P115 automatically adds the Intro pattern (prelude drum section) and Ending pattern (end drum section) at the beginning and end of the rhythm, allowing the performance to enter a constant loop rhythm There's an extra introduction before, and a different closing drum segment at the end of the performance to add to the performance. In addition, P115 has updated 3 rhythm patterns and added four additional rhythm patterns on the basis of P105. The styles of rhythms are more diverse, especially some rhythms suitable for more lyrical types of performances have been added. The rhythm update of P115 is embodied as: removed The three rhythm patterns of Triplet Beat, March, and Waltz on the P105 have added seven rhythm patterns of 8Beat2, 16Beat2, Disco, Latin Pop, Shuffle, 6/8 Slow Rock, and 16Beat Shuffle. Among the 10 pianist styles, the March style was removed and it became 8 Beat Ballad. But unfortunately, the rhythm pattern of P115 and the pianist accompaniment cannot be used at the same time, so it cannot be used as a complete automatic accompaniment.

The following is a performance audition with the P115's Grand Piano Voice combined with the pianist accompaniment: Piano with the pianist accompaniment audition:


The following are the excerpts of Stage E.Piano Voice and GrandPiano Voice playing with the built-in rhythm of the P115:
Stage E.Piano sound and rhythm playing audition:
Grand Piano sound with rhythm playing audition:



New important features:
The original intention of the design of the P series of electric pianos is to pursue simplicity in size and function, but this time the P115 has made several improvements in function, and I believe these improvements are really for user needs, not gimmicks. First of all, YAMAHA redefines and optimizes 4 kinds of reverberation effects on the P115, and specially added the SOUND BOOST sound enhancement function. After this function is turned on, the volume of the whole piano will instantly increase, and it will still not explode. This is in the performance. Or very useful for accompaniment to others. The principle should be to increase the weak frequency band and reduce the dynamic range of the sound through the digital compressor, which improves the human ear's perception of the loudness of the sound. a compensation. The second feature upgrade is the addition of a speaker off function. This function is very useful for professional musicians when performing and recording, because the electric piano is connected to other devices such as mixers through the audio output interface, and the volume of the piano itself needs to be adjusted to control the size of the audio output signal. , if the speaker of the piano cannot be turned off, it will bring a lot of trouble to the performance and recording.


The third and most practical function upgrade, on P115 and P105, most of the functions need to be realized by the combination of the FUNCTION button on the panel and the keys, and some functions are not marked above the keys, this time YAMAHA specially made for the P115 With the free companion APP, users can connect P115 to IPAD and IPHONE (additional cables are required), and control most of P115's functions on the touch screen of iPad and iPhone, such as graphical tone selection, stacking, keyboard splitting, Rhythm, piano accompaniment, metronome selection and tempo adjustment, reverb selection, etc., and the user interface is very beautiful and easy to use, which not only solves the trouble of users performing some functions on the P115, but also greatly improves the users of P115. The experience is equivalent to adding a large touch screen to the p115 in an instant, which instantly solves the problem of troublesome functions on the piano.

Voice selection interface:

Sliding screen selection interface:

Function selection interface:

Keyboard split interface:

Tone layer interface:



Transpose interface:

Metronome interface:




Reverb effect setting interface:



Duo voice setting interface:



speaker:
The installation direction of the P115 speaker (horn) is that the mid-bass unit is placed downward, and the tweeter unit is placed upward, and P115 has adjusted the specifications and dimensions of the high-frequency unit on the basis of P105. Raise just below the speaker grille. I compared with the previous generation P105 and found that although the volume of the P115 is slightly smaller than that of the P105, the high frequency response of the P115 will be better, the outline of the piano is clearer, and the overall feeling is more gorgeous and textured. The P115 set of speakers is impeccable among the products of the same price. It feels very smooth in frequency response and low in distortion. Even if the volume is turned up to the maximum, there is no speaker popping phenomenon, and the resonance of the piano body does not often occur. The quality of such a speaker is very important for a It is very rare for an electric piano that is mainly for civilian use. However, the P115 is still used as a home piano after all, and the dual 7W speakers are sufficient in a home environment, but if you move to a larger venue or rehearsal hall, you still need external speakers to obtain greater volume and sound. Better sound reinforcement. In addition, the P115 still retains the iAC intelligent sound field control function on the P105. This function essentially improves the EQ balance of low frequency and high frequency when the volume of the piano is weak, so that it can still be played at a low volume. Allows users to get better low frequency and high frequency. Finally, there is a special point to explain. I mentioned above that the mid-bass unit of the P115 is placed at the bottom of the piano body and the direction is downward. This design structure itself is very sound in terms of acoustics, but pay attention when placing it. Put it directly on an ordinary table or countertop, the mid-bass unit is equivalent to being covered, which will have a certain impact on the sound transmission. Therefore, it is best to put the piano on the piano frame matched with the P115 or the keyboard frame suspended below to obtain the best performance. sound effects.



interface:
The P115 has dual stereo headphone jacks, standard MIDI IN/OUT jacks, USB to HOST jacks (USB-MIDI jacks), left and right independent channel audio output jacks, three-pedal component jacks, and an independent damper pedal jack. These interfaces have fully met the daily needs of users, and accurately conform to the positioning of this piano.

Dual headphone jack




Summarize:

P115 is an upgraded version of P105. While maintaining the mature appearance and craftsmanship, the sound function has been improved, and the increase in volume does not increase the price. YAMAHA P115 is a portable electric piano for home use, especially at the price of about 4,000 yuan, I feel that there are almost no deductions. Its appearance, workmanship, sound, and functions are balanced and mature. If it is the same as the market. If the level products are compared horizontally, all the items of the P115 should be able to rank in the top three. It can be said that the P115 piano perfectly reflects the comprehensive strength of Yamaha musical instruments, and it is a very good piano.



advantage:
The appearance mold is exquisite in workmanship and has a sense of design
The keyboard works well, and the key noise is small
High-quality sound, pure, classic
Can be connected to IPAD and IPHONE, good user experience
Loudspeaker sound system with outstanding sound quality



shortcoming:
Slightly less speaker power, slightly less low frequency
The keystroke of the keyboard is slightly short and soft
has a plastic feel
Volume slider lacks dust flannel




Notice:
This article only represents my personal opinion, please refer to it.
The comparison conclusions in this article are only based on products of the same price.
All blue audition works in this article are original works.

This article is the original evaluation of the site, if you need to reprint, please indicate the source.
 
thanks.




The P115 is available in black and white, below is the black P115

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