Introduction
Wondering how these popular $1,000 dollar digital pianos stack up? You’ve come to the right place. Definitely check out the video comparison if you haven’t already done so, but here we have the written companion piece.
The Yamaha DGX-660 and Casio PX-770 are two very popular instruments available for about the same price, and yet, they’re very different musically and are ultimately aimed at different end-users.
Let’s jump right to a general overview.
Opening Thoughts
The primary reason we’ve decided to do this comparison is that these two instruments cost virtually the same amount of money – otherwise, they’re actually very different.
Lots of people will end up with these two pianos on their shopping list without necessarily being aware of just how different they are from one another, hence why we’ve decided to do a comparison. Hopefully, this comparison will help make it clear to you which of these two instruments will be the better fit.
Casio PX-770
The Casio PX-770 would be described as a traditional home digital piano. The functionality is limited, but the focus is mostly on tone production, cabinet, and action.
Yamaha DGX-660
The Yamaha DGX-660 Portable Grand on the other hand is actually more of an arranger keyboard, and it replaced the Yamaha DGX-650. The piano component is there, but the focus is really on having a ton of sounds, recording capability, and versatile auto-accompaniment styles.
You might be thinking that since both pianos are the same price, you must be getting more for your money with the DGX-660. This isn’t necessarily the case though, depending on your needs, and that’s what we’ll be breaking down.
We’ll start the comparison by looking at each piano’s action.
Piano Keyboard Action Comparison
Casio PX-770 Tri-Sensor Scaled Hammer Action Keyboard II
Starting with the PX-770 and we have Casio’s Tri-Sensor Scaled Hammer Action Keyboard II. This action appears in the higher-level PX series and Celviano series, but not in Casio’s top-of-the-line grand piano series.
This action uses a triple sensor and a textured key top, and it happens to be a lot quieter than the first-generation tri-sensor action. Anyone who had written the first generation action off before because they weren’t happy with the mechanical noise will be much happier with this action.
Yamaha DGX-660 Graded Hammer Standard
The action over on the DGX-660 is Yamaha’s Graded Hammer Standard or GHS action for short. This is the basic 88-key weighted action you’ll find in most of Yamaha’s digital pianos, such as the Arius series, under about $2,000 or so. It’s solidly built and well waited, but there are a few reasons why we and many others prefer the action on the PX-770.
The first reason is due to the texture of the PX 770’s keys. If you’re playing in a humid environment or if you’re a more percussive player, your fingers have the potential to glide on the GHS action, with your skin peeling back. The texture on the PX 770’s action prevents this.
The triple sensor on the Tri-Sensor Scaled Action would make this a better choice if you were going to be using your piano to trigger software instruments because the MIDI output will be more accurate. With the GHS, we’re talking about a dual sensor, so there’s a potential for it to be a little less consistent in terms of its MIDI output and touch response.
If you were a customer in our store and you were looking at these two and simply focused on a good piano experience without the need for extras, whether you’re a beginner or have some piano experience, the PX-770 is probably going to be the more logical choice here by virtue of it’s better action.
Cabinet and Pedal Comparison
Casio PX-770 Cabinet and Tripple Pedal System
The second important point of comparison is the cabinetry. The Casio PX-770 comes with a more substantial and sleeker cabinet that features an integrated triple pedal system.
Again, for people who are going to be using their instrument primarily for piano playing out of the box, the PX-770 comes out here once again.
DGX-660 Withstand Box and Sustain Pedal
The Yamaha DGX-660 comes to withstand in the box though it can be used as a portable digital piano, a triple pedal unit will be extra. The sustain pedal included with the DGX-660 is one of those basic footswitch pedals, so even if you don’t need a triple pedal, you’d want to upgrade from the basic footswitch.
Digital Piano Tone Quality Review
When we get into the quality of the tone, this gets very subjective. We’d definitely recommend checking out at least this section of this video as Stu demos the sound engines of both pianos back to back.
The fact is, what one person thinks is a great sound, another person might think is too muddy. It’s just highly subjective.
Yamaha DGX-660 Sound Engine
From a specs standpoint, the DGX-660b is using Casio’s Pure CF Sound Engine with a strong 192 notes of polyphony. It’s also loaded with over 500 sounds (388 of which are XGLite) including concert grand pianos, other acoustic pianos, electric pianos, organs, synths, and guitars among others.
This engine is based on a recording of the Yamaha CFIIIS grand piano, with a high-quality synthesis of things like damper resonance for an authentic playing experience. The Piano Room feature lets you choose from different acoustic piano setting presets (like reverbs) to create your own piano environment, easily controlled on the LCD screen.
Yamaha DGX-660 Speaker System
The Yamaha DGX-660 has a 4 speaker system driven by a 12-watt amplifier.
Features Review: Yamaha DGX-660 and Casio PX-770
This is the area where the DGX-660 really shows what it’s all about. While both pianos have features like a Metronome, Transpose, and the ability to connect to external devices to access apps for iOS and Android, the DGX-660 has a lot of extras.
For one, it has USB Audio Recording built-in, which is a huge plus for some as you don’t need to buy additional gear if you’re working with a DAW to transmit audio (WAV) information. You can also record MIDI and playback directly on board.
The auto-accompaniment feature is really strong and includes accompaniment settings like Smart Chord and a Style Recommender, easily navigated via the control panel.
Yamaha DGX-660 Microphone jack
The Yamaha DGX-660 also has a rare microphone jack, and you can read sheet music from the LCD courtesy of a score display feature.
Closing Thoughts
We hope that this has been a quick and helpful clarifier if you were considering these two pianos on a site like Amazon based solely on price. We have done individual reviews for both of these instruments as well, so we’d recommend checking out Merriam Music if you’d like to see a more in-depth breakdown of each piano.
Thanks for reading!
