Introduction
Hello and welcome to our Yamaha DGX-660 review here at Merriam Pianos. In this article, we’ll be looking at the Yamaha DGX-660 Portable Grand, one of the most popular Yamaha keyboards.
This is an 88-key digital piano that’s been on the market for a few years now, but it brings a unique combination of features to a price point that really doesn’t have very many other close comparable options, and has a ton of favorable customer reviews out there.
As such, we’ve wanted to review this instrument for a while. We’ll take a look at the action, the sound engine, and explore all of the cool arranger-type features that the DGX-660 digital piano is outfitted with.
Thanks for joining us!
Yamaha’s CFIIIS Concert Grand Piano Sound Sampling
Let’s start right away by checking out the sound on the DGX-660.
The first thing that stands out, and it also happens to be the case with the Yamaha P125, is that the speakers are upward facing.
If you have a powerful set of speakers, it is beneficial to have them pointing down as the sound reflecting off the floor creates a big sense of space and better low end. Given the size and strength of the speakers here – 2 mains and 2 tweeters which are quite high quality driven by 12 watts of power – it’s a better choice to go with upward-facing as they’ve done here.
Getting into the sound engine, and we’ve got Yamaha’s Pure CF sound engine, which is using sampling technology to reproduce Yamaha’s CFIIIS 9 Foot Concert grand piano. The Pure CF sound engine is a great piano sound engine, and you’re given a lot of control over the sound courtesy of the Piano Room feature.
Piano Room offers you control over things like Reverb algorithms, as well as sound-related aspects like damper resonance, essentially offering your own personal piano environment. There’s a variety of piano patches as well, all with their own distinct character, but the default grand piano sound is definitely the focus.
The Pure CF engine offers 192 notes worth of max polyphony, and a high count like this is important with any arranger-oriented instrument as the polyphony can get eaten up quickly with things like multitracking.
In fact, while 192 notes for solo acoustic settings is more than sufficient, it’s actually almost a bare minimum considering the variety of interactive features that the DGX-660 has.
If you press Voice Mode on the front panel, you’re given access to over 500 total sounds, including 388 XGLite sounds, which is Yamaha’s version of the GM2, as well as 15 SFX kits.
After the acoustic piano tones we already mentioned, you start getting into e-piano sounds, including all of those classical Yamaha electric pianos from the ’80s.
There are some organs, lush sounding pads, synths, and a whole lot more given the large selection of voices here. There’s also a variety of digital effects and a ton of DSP effects for altering the sounds.
Another cool sound feature is the Intelligent Acoustic Control (IAC) function which automatically EQ’s sounds in real-time for optimization, though there is a Master EQ setting as well.
Yamaha DGX-660 Graded Hammer Action
When it comes to the key action, the number of keys is 88 and we’re looking at a weighted action, so those important boxes are checked off.
The action here is Yamaha’s Graded Hammer Standard action (GHS), which has been on the market for a number of years now and is the most basic hammer action that Yamaha makes. As such, it has both pros and cons.
On paper, it’s definitely lagging behind Roland’s PHA4 action and Kawai‘s RHCII. That doesn’t mean you won’t have a satisfying playing experience with the GHS keyboard,
It’s using a dual sensor, which means it won’t be as accurate from an expressiveness piano touch response standpoint as would a triple sensor action. That said, new players will certainly be able to learn finger techniques and start to develop their piano expertise with this action.
There also isn’t any texture to speak of on any of the white keys, which means your fingers will probably catch on the keys in more humid playing environments. The black key has a nice textured matte finish, but we’d like to see the same on the white keys, as is the case with most digital piano actions, and the more advanced ones Yamaha makes.
Alternatively, something that we really like about the GHS action is the weight as it’s a slightly heavier touch that resembles that of an acoustic piano action.
There’s no escapement sensation, but only Roland‘s PHA-4 action offers escapement in the price point.
Most beginner players aren’t going to have any issues with this action, but with the lack of dynamic sensitivity, there will be a learning curve when jumping to an acoustic piano.
Features
Now we’ll get into the arranger aspects of this instrument, such as the auto-accompaniment and built-in songs. After all, if you don’t need features like this, it probably doesn’t make sense to be looking at the DGX-660 anyway.
Things like a basic metronome are covered, as is a pitch bend wheel.
The auto-accompaniment features over 200 accompaniment styles, and there’s an extra level of control over how the feature actually accompanies you with the Fingering (Single Finger, Multi Finger or AI) and Style control settings. For example, Smart Chord ensures the chords being generated are diatonic the notes you’re playing.
This is a deep, intuitive feature that would be great for solo piano performances where you would like some accompaniment, especially with the Style Recommender.
Next, there’s a 5-track recorder that acts a multitrack recording function. You can record WAV and SMF files to a USB device – USB audio recording is handy as that way you don’t need to rely on the piano’s limited memory and you can easily transfer stuff over to a DAW for more development. A big plus for the USB audio recorder here.
There’s also a cool lyric display and score display feature wherein the LCD screen will display the sheet music or lyrics on any MIDI song the DGX-660 happens to be playing.
For connectivity, there’s a DC In for your basic power supply or power adapter, a 1/4″ headphone jack, a sustain pedal port (comes with a basic footswitch but you can upgrade to a better damper pedal), 3-pedal port (for optional LP-7A pedal unit), a microphone input, AUX in (to connect to a music player) as well as both types of USB.
It doesn’t have dedicated line outputs, but you can use the 1/4″ stereo headphone jack as an output.
It’s also lacking built-in Bluetooth connectivity which is a bummer, but Yamaha does make adapters you can buy which will allow you to use WI-FI to stream audio and MIDI from an Android or iOS device to the DGX-660 without cables.
A really nice design feature of the 660 is that it works both as a portable slab-based digital piano, but it also includes a designer keyboard stand in the box, and you can add the optional LP-7A triple pedal to that if you’d like. A music rest is also included.
Closing Thoughts
For the money, the Yamaha DGX-660 is one of the best blends of features you can find, both in terms of the number of sounds, and in terms of the range of functions.
It’s going to be a great option for someone who wants a ton of built-in sounds, and a wide degree of functionality for a ton of music fun.
It’s not going to be an ideal choice for a student looking to learn piano, or for an advanced pianist, as the inherent limitations of the action will be challenging to overcome.
But, if you’re not overly concerned with a super authentic piano touch and are otherwise enticed by the total package you’re seeing here, the DGX-660 could be a great fit.
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