Roland vs Yamaha question

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Thanks Happy good point. Are you on Roland JUno 88? I guess after speakers and stands, and music holder, it could be almost double the price of the Yamaha, but still leaning to get it — in that Yamaha just ultimatey seems more micky mouse, concur?

ON stands, I see brace stands on Amazon very similar to the ON stange at $40 to 60 with great reviews from Neewer, Pixio, Knox, and STellar Labs. Any ideas on those? Also, how do any of the secure the keyboard?

Also, any recommendations on benches please forward! Best,
 
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happyrat1

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I own two Onstage Two Tier Z stands and I haven't really needed to look at other brands.

The Yamaha DGX line is meant for home use and is more of a piece of furniture.

The Juno Line is more of a professional, modular stage instrument, which allows you to customize your sound chain and lends itself more easily to studio work like recording or performing.

In my studio I stand while I play while in my living room I use a bench to play which I also purchased from Onstage.

studio-a-2019-0011.jpg




studio-a-2019-0008.jpg



I weigh in at just over 200 lbs and this holds me and a few of my books quite nicely.


Really though, any bench will do as long as it's the right height and supports your weight.

I'm not sure what you meant by "secure the keyboard" though. I just rely on gravity :D

Gary ;)
 
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Thanks Gary, well, even for a amateur or pro - am who is mostly at home: Do you concur the Roland Juno does better sounds? The quality of the sounds will be richer than the Yamaha DGX?

(beside I think the Roland just looks cooler too..as does your Kurzeil, something a bit goofy about the Yamaha keyboard/ synth combos..?)

Interesting point: when I test keyboards at store, I'm standing sometimes and thats cool. Do they make stands where you could very quickly slide from low to hi, sitting/ to standing, or they all force a choice- where need to do a tedious adjustment..? Provided only one keyboard no stacking which will be my case.

Secure, some reviewes mentioned this, how do secure? Gravity has done well?
 

happyrat1

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Personally I like the sound of the Juno DS88. It's a subjective choice anyway. One other nice feature of the DS88 is that it allows you to load samples and create your own sounds as well as download expansion packs from the Roland Axial Website.


Like I said, the Yamaha DGX is designed to sit in a living room, make noises and not much else.

The Juno DS has true MIDI ports, a mic in port, and true line level Line OUT ports allowing you to easily interface with DAW software and recording hardware and software without all the nasty kludges you have to endure with the Yamaha DGX series.

As for standing and sitting . That's also sort of subjective.

First of all how tall are you?

An acoustic piano usually sits with the keyboard 29" above the ground.

I'm not all that tall (only 5'7") and I can comfortably play at that height standiing or sitting.

Otherwise, however, most stands are not designed to be easily adjusted in height while carrying the full 35 lbs of the keyboard at the time.

In most cases you simply set and forget about adjusting the height unless you are able to easily disconnect the keyboard and remove it to make the adjustment.

Again, the Juno weighs 35 lbs. No need to secure it to the stand. Gravity does the job just fine.

Gary ;)
 
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I recommend the Onstage Two Tier Z-Stand that I use. It doesn't shiver or wobble a bit even when playing my hardest.



For speakers I recommend M-Audio BX5 or V32 monitors as budget allows.



And I STRONGLY recommend getting a custom keyboard cover from either of these guys.



DO NOT buy one of those stretchy, spandex, one-size-fits-all dustcovers. You may as well dump a bucket of sand on your keyboard if you use one of those.

Gary ;)
HAPPY:

8", 5", 4" woofers? Do all sounds great? You get to page and then confusing decision there..
 
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I use one of these to hold sheet music on my DS88.




View attachment 1487

View attachment 1488

Gary ;)
Happy do you have exact link to music holder without hole?. Link you have have one with holes and no pole.thanks.
 

happyrat1

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For your average living room, 3" or 4" woofers are more than big enough. Likewise 10 Watts of power is a comfortable listening level.

More would be overkill but if you have the money the BX5's would start to blow out your eardrums, but keep in mind they are $150 apiece.

In my studio I have a pair of BX5a's hooked up with an 8" subwoofer thru a mixer.

Plenty loud, but I never crank them up past 2 or 3 on the volume level.

I have neighbours to consider :)

Gary ;)
 

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The music stand without the holes I bought a long long time ago. I honestly can't find the link anymore.

I recommend the smaller one with the holes rather than the bigger one. Otherwise the clamp on articulated arm has trouble holding up its own weight with a music book on top.

None of them come with a pole attached. In the pictures, the pole is a mic stand it's clamped onto.

What you should do is buy the smaller Stagg, and custom fit a rod or clamp on mic stand to your keyboard stand and attach it where you like.

The articulated arm has a full 360 degrees of freedom so it can be adjusted and even inverted to any angle.

Gary ;)
 

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I only have experience with the M-Audio AV32's and the Mackie CR3's.

I don't know how well built the Presonus ones are.

Really any of them would do the job in a living room, but the Presonus and the Mackies give you more choice of inputs.

It's up to you and what your budget allows.

Gary ;)
 
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8", 5", 4" woofers? Do all sounds great?
It varies with the design. But all else being equal, a bigger woofer gives you more bass.

For whatever it's worth, the speakers in the DGX660 are in the 6-6.5" range (12 cm) for the woofer.
 

happyrat1

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The speakers in the DGX660 are also vertically mounted in a rattling keyboard enclosure without proper baffles or ports to direct the sound. Keyboard manufacturers like Yamaha and Casio these days also tend to cheap out on the fidelity of the built in speakers.

A well designed 4" woofer these days can compete on a pretty even footing with an 8" acoustic suspension woofer from back in the 70's.

Personally I'll always choose a pair of well designed studio monitors over the junky speakers they mount inside of most keyboards these days. Size and power don't matter as much as they once did.

The original poster might also want to chime in with his own listening preferences. If he wants to play at reasonable sound levels for a home or apartment, 20 watts is pretty much as high as he needs to go.

If he's more the heavy metal type and wants to rattle his windows, then I'd suggest adding a subwoofer or getting a pair of 8" monitors.

It honestly boils down to what he thinks is a reasonably sounding system.

Gary ;)
 
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thanks Happy in apartment, so low volume, but even then I notice those enclosed speakers are really garbage as you point out.
 
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The speakers in the DGX660 are also vertically mounted in a rattling keyboard enclosure without proper baffles or ports to direct the sound. Keyboard manufacturers like Yamaha and Casio these days also tend to cheap out on the fidelity of the built in speakers.

A well designed 4" woofer these days can compete on a pretty even footing with an 8" acoustic suspension woofer from back in the 70's.

Personally I'll always choose a pair of well designed studio monitors over the junky speakers they mount inside of most keyboards these days. Size and power don't matter as much as they once did.

The original poster might also want to chime in with his own listening preferences. If he wants to play at reasonable sound levels for a home or apartment, 20 watts is pretty much as high as he needs to go.

If he's more the heavy metal type and wants to rattle his windows, then I'd suggest adding a subwoofer or getting a pair of 8" monitors.

It honestly boils down to what he thinks is a reasonably sounding system.

Gary ;)
PS Which brings up another point! You can't really judge the Yamaha sounds in Store as they are using garbage speakers! So the Juno blew me away, as it was connected to great speakers. Was the Juno sound better than the Yahamas? Who knows maybe those $179 Yamaha or the DGX sounds are as good as the Roland..?? How would I know in the Store? So I'm leaning to buying Roland.. but is the Juno really better sounding? Richer/ fuller killer sounds or Yamahas, just sound blah, in store because of those speakers?
 
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PS Which brings up another point! You can't really judge the Yamaha sounds in Store as they are using garbage speakers! So the Juno blew me away, as it was connected to great speakers. Was the Juno sound better than the Yahamas? Who knows maybe those $179 Yamaha or the DGX sounds are as good as the Roland..?? How would I know in the Store?
Listen to both through your own headphones. Also, you can run a cable from the Yamaha to the same amp the Roland is going through (or probably even run it into the Roland's External Input to be passed along into the same amp/speakers at the same time). You may need some non-typical combination of cables/adapters, but if you're in a music store, they should have whatever is necessary.
 
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thanks Scott, ok your opinon? Have not done that.. still you think Yamahs will sounds as good? Maybe those $180 Yamahas sound as good as the Juno? Have to save though the Juno still seems to have best combo right? You get the A level piano with A level synth in one... While DGX has all that furniture clutter.. but have you done this test for sounds syth? Roland vs Yamaha?
 
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THANKS Gary, I'm 6'. Those sounds collections...strings etc, are even more than what the Juno comes with? Wow, and I doubt I could ever get through those. Have you ever tested A/B Yamaha sounds vs Roland with same speakers?
 
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Personally, in a moderate cost board, I'd take the Kurzweil SP6 over either of them. But we all tend to differ in the features and sounds we care most about.
 

happyrat1

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Like Scott said, the best way to compare multiple keyboards in the store is to bring your own headphones along and plug them in.

Bring an adaptor though. The Roland has a 1/4" headphone jack while the Yamaha I believe has 1/8" (another cost cutting measure by Yamaha) And on the Yamaha it doubles up as a line out jack. :p

There are so many reasons why I don't even look at Yamaha keyboards that I don't want to get into here for fear of derailing the thread. These things turn into religious arguments :D

Gary ;)
 

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