Are you interested in the Yamaha DGX-660 digital piano? In this Yamaha DGX-660 digital piano review, we shall be focusing on everything there is about this premium portable piano. This digital piano comes with varied features useful in education, performance and even entertainment. Let us get right into it.
“Check our comparison post with the best digital pianos in the market here: Digital Pianos Comparison”
YAMAHA DGX-660 88-KEY WEIGHTED ACTION DIGITAL PIANO SPECIFICATIONS
- 9 x 21.5 x 12.8 inches in size
- 46 lbs / with keyboard stand 61 lbs in weight
Control Interface
- 88 keys
- Graded hammer standard (GHS) keyboard
- Four touch sensitivity levels
- Pitch Bend – Yes
Display
- Type – Full-Dot LCD
- Size – 320×240 dots
- Color – Monochrome
- Contrast – Yes
- Score Display Function – Yes
- Lyrics Display Function – Yes
- Language – English
Voices
- Pure CF Sound Engine Piano Sound
- 192 Polyphony
- Preset – 151 + 15 Drum/SFX Kits + 388 XGlite
- Featured Voices – 1 Natural!, 10 Live!, 11 Sweet!, seven Cool!
Compatibility
- GM – Yes
- XGlite – Yes
Effects
- 41 types of Reverbs
- 44 types of choruses
- 237 types of DSP
- 5 types of Master EQ
- Intelligent Acoustic Control (IAC) – Yes
Functions
- Dual – Yes
- Split – Yes
- Panel Sustain – Yes
Accompaniment Styles
- Number of Preset Styles – 205
- Fingering – Multi Finger, Full Keyboard, AI Fingered
- Style Control – INTRO, MAIN x 2, FILL-IN x 2, ENDING
- Music Database – 320
- One Touch Setting (OTS) – Yes
- Style Recommender – Yes
- Smart Chord – Yes
Compatibility
- Style File Format (SFF)
- Style File Format GE (SFF GE)
Songs
- Preset Songs – 100
- Number of Songs – 5
- Tracks – 6
- Data Capacity – Approx. 30,000 notes for 1 user song
Functions
- Number of Buttons – 4 ( x 8 banks )
- Lesson/Guide – Yamaha Education Suite (Y.E.S.) Waiting, Your tempo, Minus one, Repeat & Learn, Chord Dictionary
- Demonstration – Yes
- Overall Controls Metronome – Yes
- Tempo Range – 5 – 280
- Transpose – -12 – 0 – +12
- Tuning – 415.3 – 440.0 – 466.2 Hz
Miscellaneous
- Piano Room – Yes
Audio Recorder/Player
- Recording Time (max.) – 80 minutes/Song
- Recording – WAV (44.1kHz, 16bit, stereo)
- Playback – WAV (44.1kHz, 16bit, stereo)
Storage and Connectivity
- Internal Memory Approx. – 1.7 MB
- External Drives – USB Flash Memory
- DC IN – 12V
- Headphones – x 1 (Standard stereo phone jack)
- Sustain Pedal – Yes
- Pedal Unit – Yes
- Microphone – Yes (Standard phone jack)
- AUX IN – Yes (Stereo mini jack)
- USB TO DEVICE – Yes
- USB TO HOST – Yes
- Sustain Pedal – Yes, Half pedal available with optional FC3A
- USB TO HOST – Yes
- Amplifiers – 6 W x 2
- Speakers -12cm x 2 + 5cm x 2
Power
- Power Supply – Adaptor (PA-150 or an equivalent recommended by Yamaha)
- Auto Power Off Function – Yes
- Power Consumption – 13 W
Accessories
- Owner’s Manual
- Data List
- Keyboard Stand
- Footswitch
- Music Rest
- AC Power Adaptor (PA-150 or an equivalent recommended by Yamaha) *1
- Warranty – 1 year
YAMAHA DGX-660 DIGITAL PIANO REVIEW – FEATURES
This digital piano comes with improved features from a previous model as we are going to show you below.
Sound
The Yamaha DGX-660 comes with pure CF sampling. This means its sounds were sampled from Yamaha’s CFIII 9’s grand piano to offer clean and clear authentic sound.
In addition to the 10 piano sounds, the piano offers 554 other instrument sounds, giving you lots of room for creativity.
To make the sound more interesting, there is an array of sound effects to choose from. These include 41 types of reverb for simulating the acoustics of various environments. 44 types of choruses to make the sound richer and thicker, and also 26 harmony types to add harmony notes.
Another impressive feature that adds to the sound versatility is a Pitch Bend wheel. It allows you to reproduce some interesting sound effects such as guitar vibrato and choking. You get this by bending notes up and down as you play the keyboard.
Also, to tailor the sound to your liking, there are 5 Master equalizer (EQ) types and a digital signal processing DSP to that effect.
Polyphony
Polyphony is everything, and Yamaha saw to it that this piano upgrade got a higher polyphony of 192 from its previous model. You do not have to worry about dropped notes and will offer superior control and dynamism to any piece.
The Keyboard
With 88-key weighted hammer action, this piano comes with an incredible system that feels very similar to that of an acoustic piano.
This action is called the Graded Hammer Standard (GHS). It will give a heavy touch on the low-end keys and a lighter touch on the high-end ones. This is a great way to develop good finger technique as well as strength for performing on an acoustic piano.
Modes
The Yamaha DGX-660 offers the split and dual modes.
- Split – This is a fun feature that splits the keyboard into two parts. it allows you to simultaneously play two different instruments on each hand.
- Dual – This allows you in layering two different sounds so that they sound simultaneously over the entire keyboard range.
Recording and Playback
The DGX-660 uses both MIDI (SMF) and audio (WAV) format to record and playback performances.
With the MIDI, you record the MIDI data, which is a sequence of notes, their length as well as their velocity. The piano also has an internal flash memory where you can record and store up to five songs.
On the other hand, with the Audio format, you record and playback the actual sound of the keyboard. Here, you can record up to 80 minutes of recording and save it to a flash drive in WAV format.
Lesson Function
There is an on-board lesson feature with this piano called the Yamaha Education Suite (Y.E.S.). This is a very useful learning tool for beginner pianists as well as practicing students.
Piano Room
The Yamaha DGX-660 provides comfortable play by allowing the player to choose their own environment to play in. The virtual setting also helps you in selecting from a wide range of acoustic and piano choices to customize your setting.
Smart Chord
The Smart Chord is yet another interesting feature that makes you sound like a pro despite your skill level. This feature assists you to play with accompaniments styles with just one finger as long as the music key is known.
Style Recommender
This useful function suggests to you optimum styles depending on the rhythm you are playing for one or two measures.
Connectivity
DGX-660 will integrate with your PC, iOS apps, and your portable music player and other instruments through the AUX IN. It also comes with a powerful speaker system, which can be fine-tuned to play-back any type of music.
Pros
- Offers different modes to choose from
- GHS keyboard to give a realistic piano feel
- Comes with a clear LED display
- Has a great microphone input
- Great sound quality and styles
- Has plenty of excellent features
- Comes with a 192-note polyphony
- Features a high-quality build
- Offers USB connectivity and a built-in track recorder
Cons
- It is a bit heavy to carry
- Only has one pedal
- The volume is a bit too soft
The Yamaha DGX-660 is a great piano that comes packed with plenty of new and improved features. These, however, can be a bit overwhelming to navigate but a small problem that will not take away all of its good.
This is quite a versatile digital piano that will be appreciated by both experienced piano players as well as beginners.
We hope this Yamaha DGX-660 digital piano review has given you some insight on what to expect with this instrument.
Share your thoughts with us on this digital piano in the comment section.
