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Casio AP-200 88 Key Digital Piano


Casio AP-200 88 Key Digital Piano


Best Price: $1,199.99

Product Features
  • Keyboard: Scaled Hammer Action Keyboard
  • Touch Response: Yes
  • Tones: 11 Tri Element
  • Sound Source: AIF
  • Polyphony: 128
Editorial Reviews
Product Description

The Casio AP200 Digital Piano is a digital piano with real piano sound, MIDI capability, and digital effects. Features include 88 full-size scaled hammer action keys, 128 note polyphony, AIF sound source, touch sensitive keys, 11 tones, three pedals, and two speakers at 8 watts per side.

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Customer Reviews
Adrian Quark Said: attractive and affordable ( Jun. 19th 2009 )
We chose this keyboard as a home practice piano after comparing and trying out several sub-$1000 models. The closest competitors we considered were the Casio PX800, a slightly smaller faux-upright, and the cheaper and more portable Yamaha P-85. We found the AP200 had the most realistic keyboard action, the best speaker sound, and the most attractive body. A lot of reviewers like the Yamaha P-series keyboard action, but we found the Yamaha keys felt too plastic, and the Casio keyboards had a nicer "thump" feeling when the key hits bottom. (One side effect is that the Casio keyboard is noticeably louder when you're playing with headphones.) Key feel is subjective so you should really try keyboards out in person if you can; at least I can tell you that you will notice a difference between the Casio and Yamaha actions. The main speakers on the AP200 are underneath the keyboard, so it seems as though the sound is resonating from the whole instrument rather than obviously from the speakers on top as with many other digital models. This definitely sounds much better than either the Yamaha P-85 (which has puny speakers) or the PX800. The piano voice itself sounded good to me both through the speakers and through headphones, although it was generally more mellow and resonant (some might call it muddy) than the Yamaha sound. You can hear some slightly digital artifacts and repetition of the sample in the decay of the sound as you hold down a key (which I didn't notice with the Yamaha P-85), but it is not enough to detract from the overall sound. The other voices (upright and slap bass, electric pianos, strings, organs) sounded OK, but we intend to use the keyboard almost exclusively as a piano so I didn't listen to them closely. The first AP200 that we bought had a defect: there was a pronounced artificial ringing or echo (almost like a really crappy reverb filter) in the decay, most noticeable in the high notes with the volume turned all the way up. It was subtle but very annoying once you noticed it. We exchanged that model, and the new one did not have this problem. I wonder whether the reviewer who thought the piano voice sounded like crap based his/her opinion on a defective model. The three pedals all work as you would hope. As in a real piano, the damper (sustain) pedal has less effect on the higher notes. The sostenuto pedal is a true sostenuto which sustains only those keys which were playing when the pedal was depressed -- it is NOT just a damper pedal for the lower register. The una corda (soft) pedal doesn't just change the volume of notes, it changes the quality of the tone to be less bright, with a shorter decay. There are a number of settings, controlled by holding down a button and then pressing one of the keyboard keys. The more common features (changing voice, setting tempo, etc) are labeled inconspicuously above the keys; the more esoteric ones (for example, you can enable a feature which remembers your settings when you turn the keyboard off and on) have to be looked up in the manual. Overall it was easy to use although I would have appreciated some form of visual feedback like an LCD screen. The stand/case is a dark faux wood and looks quite nice from a distance, and really gives you the impression you're looking at a real (compact) upright, though up close the wood grain is obviously fake. The veneer seems to be plastic or vinyl, not just contact paper as in some cheap office furniture, so it doesn't scratch or tear easily. The keyboard easily separates from the base, although it is still quite heavy and you need two people to lift and move it. The base is easy to assemble and disassemble: just a dozen screws in pre-drilled holes. Still, if you are looking for something portable this is not it; even to move it between rooms in the same house would be awkward.
kur-v Said: good sound good price ( Feb. 26th 2009 )
sounds good, looks good. very similar sound to my daughter's piano teachers yamaha clavinova. at half the price. we are happy.
John Nabholz Said: A solid "3 out of 5" ( Sep. 22nd 2008 )
PROS: Excellent cabinetry, built-in keyboard cover, full three-pedal pedalboard, GREAT pipe organ voice, easy operation of optional features, not too many digital "doodads" like drums and intros. This is designed to be a "serious," "next-best-thing-to-real" piano. CONS: Piano-voice sampling is WEAK -- sounds like something between an old Fender-Rhodes electric "boing boing boing" keyboard and a cheap Casio kiddy keyboard. Key weighting is also quite primitive by today's standards. Don't buy this unit expecting piano sounds anywhere near a Yamaha or Roland. OK for practice, but definitely not up to performance use unless you don't care about the realism of piano sounds. Buy only after you play!

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