Yamaha P-125 digital piano review
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The Yamaha P-125 is a giant leap forward from it’s predecessor, now offering a selection of rhythms and backings alongside a revised sound engine.
Yamaha P125 – A Compact Design
The Yamaha P125 offers rich, vibrant sound in a compact form, making use of a simple and tidy control interface to help you focus on playing, not programming. Simply turn on the P-125 and play – you’re met with a beautiful piano sound immediately – or treat yourself to an array of voices ranging from strings to harpsichord, all expertly sampled for high-fidelity. The continuous matte lines within the design of the P125 are purposefully non-reflective, so as to be equally non-distracting and elegantly understated.
Key Action
The touch-sensitive Graded Hammer Action (or GHS for short) key-action offers all the authenticity of a ‘real’ piano’s touch, with absolutely no maintenance or tuning required. With a full compliment of 88-keys, the Yamaha P-125 is everything you need for practice and performance, including realistic weighting of the key ranges – heavier at the low end, and lighter toward the top.
Sound
Yamaha has used their significant history as a piano maker in providing piano sample for the P125, including the use of the legendary Yamaha CFIII 9′ concert grand, here faithfully reproduced, along with all it’s inherent nuances and dynamic expressiveness.
There really is a big sound inside this compact instrument.
The on-board 2-way speakers deliver sound both upwards and downwards, ensuring that the playing space is filled with the genuine impression of an acoustic instrument being played. You can even set the P125 on a table-top, and the intelligent ‘Table EQ” design will adapt to deliver the best possible sound.
Connect headphones, and you’ll find the Yamaha P-125 and it’s “Stereophonic Optimizer’ come into play, designed to avoid listening fatigue by creating a degree of audio ‘separation’ of the player from the sound of the instrument itself.
This works excellently in providing a far more pleasant long-term playing environment through headphones, where there is typically a level of brashness in being directly connected to a digital instrument’s output.
More Features The Yamaha P125 even provides a selection of bass and drum rhythm accompaniments, ranging from rock and ballads, to jazz, lending an additional degree of enjoyment to lone practice.
Connect the instrument to Yamaha’s Smart Pianist app , and you’ll find new ways to enjoy the P-125, including touch control of the features of the instrument via your mobile device, and even the means to discover the chords from songs in your iTunes library, to help you learn your favourite songs!
Our Thoughts
The P45 and the P125 have been our go-to options for beginners and gigging musicians for some time now. The Yamaha P125 is clearly a more-rounded performer, with more features and a far richer, fuller sound, and unlike some stage pianos and keyboards with a full 88-note range, the P125 is still able to generate a reliable tone at both of the farthest reaches of its sonic spectrum.
We seldom see any being offered in part exchange, which in itself speaks volumes. Even when players progress to better instruments, it seems there is a reluctance to let the P125 go.
