Side by Side Comparison of: Griffin Stands vs Casio vs Yamaha vs Keysies

I looked for a long time for a piano bench to replace a bench that came with my piano that was flimsy, this one worked great and was longer then the other one

Sturdy and looks great. Had for only couple of weeks as only mod made was to put a felt bumper on bottom of front left leg due to initial wobbling, as once put into place, no wobbling. Now there were some reviewers who mentioned loose legs making it unstable, as only advice that I can offer is to tighten up legs real tight initially cause once you have any play it will progressively get worse (I'm a cabinetmaker). This is not a heavy duty piece of furniture meaning if you are sitting on it and choose to scoot/slide it around it will not hold up, but if you treat it right I'm sure it will last a very long time.

The Griffin Ebony Black Leather Piano Bench is great my wife likes the classic style and it is well made and easily assembled. My wife always wanted to upgrade to a better piano bench and this is the model. As others have mentioned, the legs are wrapped in paper in the box and occasionally you get a little finish problem or ding. Better packing would be helpful, but the issue is minor for us. Recommend!

Product came in on the first day of the estimated date range, which wasn't bad since I'm hooked on prime, and this product didn't offer 2 day prime shipping. Product came in, wife was home and built it and texted me a pic before I even knew it arrived. I couldn't pass on this price for a duel person seat and the only reviews that got me nervous was some reporting a toxic smell. Not sure what the other reviews were talking about and maybe it was years back, but this seat is awesome. Great value, No weird smell. Plenty of room for books. Looks great in my music room. I had to give it five stars for it covered all of my needs. We have the Yamaha P-105 Digital Piano with the L-85 stand. Although my piano stand is a flat black and the seat has a glossy black finish, the seat still makes a great addition to my set. Now my kids can double on the piano, and that makes this seat an even better buy for us.

This is a really nice bench for the money. It was much easier for two people to assemble as you really can use a third hand to hold the lid open. Hopefully you have a socket set, because I think it would be very hard to assemble this with the 'tool' provided. However, it went together fine and is very solid. I would buy this one again. It gets five stars for actually exceeding my expectations and being very affordable.

I am not sure why there are some comments on needing an instructions to assemble it. The only assembly required is putting 4 legs to the base by using 4 nuts with washers. Super simple!Everything was nicely packed and arrived safe. Even though the leather is imitation, but it is really nice and I was kind of worried about the strong smell as it was also stated by some other reviewers. However, I didn't really feel any strong smell from it.One thing that I added myself that I felt wasn't working too well on the hardwood floor is additional fleece scratch protectors to the bottom of the legs. Legs have rubber protectors already on them, but it was really hard to move around. But that was my preference, and really cheap customization to it.

The keys are weighted nicely, each note comes through distinctly and with more purity of tone than any piano I have ever played, and the pedal works perfectly.The only bad part of owning this is that once you become accustomed to playing on this it makes playing on all but the finest actual pianos seem dull, with pitches that get muddied together rather than coming through crisply.

I love this piano. I put the stand together by myself with no problem. Got some help lifting the main piano onto the stand. I've been playing it a lot and I love it. The sound is much better than I expected. I'm really happy with it.

I had a problem with the headphone jack wherein once the headphones were removed I could no longer hear the piano. After a some time and tinkering around it kind of resolved itself. There have been no problems since. I'm very happy with this purchase.

I have wanted a digital piano for years because the console I had for over 40 years was too big for our retirement home. This is just the ticket. I love the feel of the key action. It feels like the grand I play at church. There are lots of little bells and whistles I am anxious to try but it's going to take time. It's time I look forward to.

I'm loving this. I am rekindling my childhood love of playing the piano. I wouldn't buy this if I were a professional pianist, but it suits my needs quite well as an intermediate player. I tried out a number of other digital pianos and liked this one the best. The only one that beat it was a Kawaii, which was nearly 3x the price but not 3x the quality in my opinion. I'm very happy with this purchase, it makes my afternoons quite lovely.

A week into owning this and I love it. The guide suggests having two people to build it, but it can be done solo. Just be wiser than me and make sure when connecting parts A and B to C, to have C's side with screws facing out towards the wall. Building aside, I was a little concerned about the particle board material being cheap looking, but it all looks fairly polished.I am not a musician, but I have always loved tinkering around on the piano, enough to teach myself how to play. The piano sounds authentic enough to me, the keys feel great and I can go long stretches of playing and not really feel any fatigue. I had read a bunch of online reviews and initially landed on the Casio PX850 reviews and was about to buy that because of the high ratings, until I found this updated version mentioned in further comments. Figured if this is just and update and the previous build was so great, I'd take a chance on it and so far, as I said earlier, a week into owning it and I love it. Would highly recommend it.

I was pleasantly surprised at how nice this piano bench is at this price point. It's a good height for our 10 year old granddaughter's keyboard or for an adult. Perfect match plus she is happy to have the storage. Easily assembled.

Nice color and look. I like that that seat stays up on its own when open. We have had to tighten the leg screws a few times already since purchasing it, this is the only downside. It's definitely not a solid oak bench that will last a lifetime, but I'm certain we'll get a good few years out of it.

Legs had several chips upon arrival. Easy assembly and appears to be sturdy. My former piano bench didn't have padding so I'm looking forward to using this one. It's comfortable to sit on but I'll reserve final judgement until after a few hours of playing. I may end up swapping the legs from my former bench and attach them to this one since the flared feet match my piano.Overall, I'm happy with the purchase so far.

The buttons on the seat stick out and get really uncomfortable after 10 minutes! The seat padding isn't very firm, so you tend to sit directly on the buttons. Placing a blanket or another seat pad on top took care of it, but what's the point of a padded bench if the padding makes it worse?Reviewers have stated that the bench isn't sturdy, but it's totally fine. Just make sure you put the locking spring washer between the flat washer and nut, and tighten down snug. You may need to re-tighten after the bench settles, but after that, it's all good.

I bought this bench because I wanted a reasonably priced storage bench for my Casio Privia. I adore it! There's plenty of room for your larger books. The cushion is adorable, comfortable, and just the look I was going for. Super simple to assemble, even without instructions. The only minor downfall was it smelled manufactured at first, but that's to be expected - it fades. Overall, exactly what I expected & wanted!

My Yamaha digital piano came with a bench that is smaller than the standard benches that pianos "used to" come with. It was fine for one person (or one and a half people!), but not for playing with two. So, I ordered this bench.I'm happy with the bench. The padding is comfortable and I appreciate that the seat lifts, providing space for storage. My bench has a shiny black lacquer finish. However, there were no assembly instructions. The bench was mostly assembled when it arrived--it just needed the legs to be attached. Not a big deal. Each leg had the main screw installed, so it was just a matter of putting on two washers and a nut for each leg, but I wasn't sure how to order the washers. A phone call to my father solved the problem (regular washer, "locking" washer, nut!). However, the three out of four screws were also too short to accommodate both washers. The washers and nuts were accompanied by a little wrench, which was nice--saved me the trouble of digging out a wrench to do the job.Moral of story: This is nice-looking, comfortable, and sturdy piano bench in a traditional size, which is both wider and longer and more nicely padded than the bench provided by Yamaha with my Arius digital piano. The glossy black finish is nice, but I would love it if the manufacturer would provide more finishing options (they only offered glossy black and mahogany, and pianos come in a wide variety of finishes) Finally, it would be nice if the bench manufacturer provided installation instructions (as well as screws long enough to accommodate the washers provided!)

Sounds is excellent. Weighted keys are just right. Lacking features of competitors, and instrument selection is very basic. However, if you are looking for a good quality practice electric piano that will fit into a tight space without too much of a compromise, this is a good deal. Once again, sound is excellent and this is cheaper than an upright.

Purchased it 3 days ago. We were pretty pleased until this am when it's not producing sound anymore through the speakers :(Sound comes out with headphones on though. Made sure to try factory reset several times, but no luck.Very disappointed. Will call tech support tomorrow am and update this review when I have more information.Update (12/23): We returned the piano and got a new PX860. So far after 1 week, no issues. We love it, hoping all will stay functional !

The piano looks nice and is easy to assemble. I was able to put the whole thing together in about 30 minutes. This is my first piano so I'm not a professional judge of sound, but to my ear it sounds pretty good. The biggest issue I have with it is that some of the keys make a clacking/clicking noise when they spring back up after being played. Some of them are worse than others, and it's audible over the music when played at a moderate level (for the pianist, not the audience). At night when I have the volume down low it's really distracting. I don't know if this is a common issue with electric pianos, but if I had it to do over again I might look at a different brand. I chose this one because of the high polyphony compared to the competition and ordered without trying it in person. Next time I'll definitely try to find one locally to try out first.The material used for the keys and the weight of them feels great under my fingertips. I feel like I could easily move on to playing a real piano after learning on this, which is what I wanted. The different sound effects are appreciated also. There are enough to give you the ability to play different styles of music, but none of the extra fluff you find on keyboards that isn't needed. I haven't used all of the other features yet, but so far I haven't found it lacking in anything I need. If it wasn't for the noisy keys this would be about perfect for me.

First of all let me say that, after about a month of ownership I'm pleased with my purchase. I previously bought a Yamaha PSR E443 after a 20 year piano playing break to see if I'd enjoy it. I used that for a couple of months and decided that, if I wanted to play on an acoustic piano, realistic key action was important.The difficulty I had was in choosing a featureful piano providing recording, accompaniment, auto arpeggio etc (like my yamaha). The conclusion I came to was that those features were something of a distraction. It was fun to experiment with and record giving impressive sounding results with little effort but in the end experimentation and feature overload distracted me from developing my piano playing skills, which was my goal.So on to the review. Despite going from a 61 key keyboard to an 88 this takes up less usable space thanks to being only 12 inches deep. I opted for brown (like most of my other furniture) and with the lid closed it blends in nicely. With the lid open the minimalist controls and ebony/ivory effect keys look pleasant.As for the feel, the key action feels excellent. One touch and my old keyboard immediately felt like a toy. Pleasant weighting and hammer action really remind me of a grand piano. I also find the ebony/ivory effect key surfaces much more enjoyable than the more shiny finishes, allowing for smooth, controllable sliding along the keys with no "stick/slip" effect. The weighted action isn't only a realism factor but also helps in certain techniques lending regularity to trills and arpeggios.As for the sound the speakers are more than loud enough for my purposes and combined with the sensitive keybed, when turned to maximum volume you get a huge dynamic range from a rumbling bass to a clear, ringing treble. The string and damper resonance also add a distinctive ring when notes are held with the damper up.The 5 piano sounds are pleasant enough though the grand is the standout. Adding the chorus, reverb, lid simulator, physical lid, and brilliance adjustments you can customise the sound very nicely. Though not explicitly listed the jazz organ has a wurlitzer like tone (though obviously an organ, meaning no "release" or velocity sensitivity) and the 60s electric piano has that Rhodes sound, though lacks the "crunch" of the real thing. The pipe organ sounds quite impressive, the strings are pleasant, (with a gentle attack) and the vibraphone has a great jazzy ring. Any pair of instruments can be layered and you can easily adjust the volume balance between your layered sounds. This allows layering of dissimilar voices (such as piano and strings) or combining similar instruments (such as two of the e-pianos) to customize their character further. Overall the sound range is small but what is there is of very usable quality and combined with layering and effects, gives you a fairly broad range of sounds with flexible character.The pedals work well but don't have the solidity of those on a real grand piano. They do however give you the expressive control you are looking for. I've not tried the lessons, concert play or recording but I listened to the concert pieces and they sound excellent.I've tried connecting it up to the computer briefly and this worked fine though it's worth noting they do not include a full GM sound bank. I was hoping they would to allow my midi creations to be played back through the device, but only the advertised instruments are provided and all other tonal instruments play as pianos. It does perform admirably as a midi controller but that was not really my intent.Overall, if you want a solid digital piano (rather than the more full fledged music workstation) that could hold its own acoustically against most uprights (with a tone like a grand) then, for the price this is hard to beat. For people looking for arrangers, accompaniment, midi connectivity and other features, look elsewhere. For me, it's also a fairly pleasant piece of furniture too which is a plus.UPDATE: First I wanted to add an update about headphones. I tried my Bose Quiet Comfort but in high impedance mode the loudest volume on the piano was very quiet, and in low impedance mode there was a lot of buzzing. Other low impedance headphones (including in ear) like you might use on an mp3 player/phone tended to suffer from the same buzz. Higher impedance devices like you'd use with an amp tended to be too quiet. In the end I found that some 35 Ohm over ear headphones worked fine (good but not excessive maximum volume and no buzz at any volume level).On an ergonomic/control note, only the middle half of the keyboard has functions written above the keys. This keeps the look of the piano clean and provides easy access to all the primary functions but means you'll probably have to resort to looking at the manual for some of the less common functions (such as layer volume balance, or disabling sound for use as a controller). On the subject of the manual, you will probably have to refer to it at various times such as trying to use the two track recorder as how this is done is certainly non obvious; remember, this is a piano first (turn it on, wait a few seconds and play) and everything else second (midi controller, recording device etc).Also regarding split, I found a lot of confusing information online around it. Yes it supports split, but you cannot split with arbitrary instruments. The lower half of the piano may only be an upright bass, though this can be combined with any (even dual layered instruments) in the upper half. This is not a concern for me but is certainly worth knowing about.UPDATE 2:This update regards the ability to record WAV files directly to a memory stick in the piano. I had tried it at a cursory level previously and it seemed to work fine, but recently I tried to make some longer recordings and hit a problem. Though the (generic) memory stick I was using seemed to work fine on a computer it appeared to be problematic when used on the piano (even after reformatting on the piano itself). In particular the piano would take an extremely long time after I stopped the recording and often the files would end up truncated to between 4 and 7mb. There was, however, no indication of the recording problem while I was playing meaning I only knew the data wasn't being recorded when I looked at the file on the memory stick.In an attempt to resolve the problem I replaced the memory stick with a branded (san disk) one and the truncated file problem vanished, as did the mysterious delay after stopping recording. I've now recorded several files in the 200mb range without issue. The only slow down in the WAV recording now is the time to mount the stick (which has to happen once per insertion of the stick or piano restart) which takes about 20 seconds and occurs when you turn on the "audio recorder" (not when you insert the stick). Since this only happens once per "session" it's not too problematic.Note: Even with the old thumb drive I could copy MIDI files without issue (presumably because of their size). Rendering them with Pianoteq produced some excellent audio files.

Just got in the Casio PX860 today. We decided to buy this piano because I had a few professional pianist friends recommend it for the budget we had. They also own Casio Privia’s and take them to use on gigs and said they really liked them. I myself am a musician so I’m pretty picky about the sound and quality of the instruments I buy. I will be updating this review over the next few months to let everyone know how it’s holding up. I was originally going to get the PX850 and then found out they had just came out with the upgraded 860 so bought it instead. I also read the review on azpianonews (http://azpianonews.blogspot.com/2015/01/Casio-PX860-REVIEW-digital-piano-privia-new-lowest-price-best-buy.html). Below I have listed the pro’s and con’s about the piano, however, overall the piano is great and is the best buy for the money for sure. I had played on a few other digital pianos and this by far sounds and feels the best. It even sounds and feels better than some in the $2000 range.Pros1. Quick delivery2. Great sound! Better sound than a lot of other acoustic pianos imo. The speakers are awesome, I feel like I’m in a concert hall when I’m in the other room listening to my daughter play.3. Key action is very real. I feel like I’m playing on a real piano.4. Keys feel nice5. Fairly easy to assemble (it is heavy so you may need two people to carry it and assemble it.)6. Compact and takes up very little room. We live in a small apartment so it’s perfect for us.7. Comes with two head phone jacks, so you won’t annoy the neighbors or sleeping kids.8. Has volume control—also great for neighbors and sleeping kids.9. Comes with other sounds i.e. organ, strings, harpsichord etc.10. USB portCons1. The sustain pedal doesn’t feel or sound like an acoustic piano. If I hold the sustain pedal down and just keep playing, the notes don’t mesh together as much like it would on an acoustic piano. The pedal is also very easy to press down with your foot, which is fine, except when my daughter goes to piano competitions and is playing on a real grand piano, I’m afraid the pedal strength and sound will throw her off. I did try unplugging and plugging the pedal cord back in a few times, and the cord is loose and wiggles. Doesn't seem to have that great of a connection. This is the only reason I gave it a 4 star rating instead of a 5.2. The base is cheap and wiggles if you bump it or play with vigor. This bothers my husband a lot because they could have used a little thicker wood and made it a little wider so it didn’t wiggle. But it’s not enough for us to spend another $600 for the Yamaha Aruis YDP-181 when the Casio PX860 sounds and feels so great. Of course time will tell on this one. We’ll see how it holds up.3. Can’t adjust the music stand, but that is just a minor detail.4. The acoustic bass sound is not the best, but if you are looking to buy this mainly for the piano, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Big storage and easy to put together directions. Looks like It is cheaply made, smelly materials, pokes and catches clothes on buttons. Uncomfortable to seat on and some students have commented on it. I am still keeping the item because of affordable price.

Overall good quality. The buttons had a few stray strands and and bolts were very rusty, but it works perfectly.

Very pretty bench that seems quite sturdy. But the cushion is not very thick and my bum can easily tell when I am sitting on a button because the pad is thinner there and its uncomfortable. I just have to shift around on the chair sometimes to avoid the annoying spots.

looks good and kind of comfortable. but my kids feel like pain about bench's buttons. when my kids play piano, the buttons bother them.

It is a nice bench but there was a big scratch on one of the legs and one corner was not in place like it should have been. Other than that I like the bench and it was not worth the effort and expense of sending it back. I made it work.

From looking at the picture, this bench looks like it is well padded. The actual item has very little padding on the seat to where it is uncomfortable to sit there for an extended period of time.

For detailed piano reviews I encourage you to go to [...] There are great piano reviews on this website that have really helped me find the right piano for my budget. I'm leaning towards the roland f140, but this man gives great reviews on all pianos. I am not in anyway affiliated with him. I just want to help fellow shoppers out since I know how overwhelming digital piano choices can be!

Overall, this product should be sturdy enough, but certainly something special. Of greater concern is the quality of finish (the black paint/stain), which on our particular unit was somewhat uneven and just poorly executed. As with many of these items, I'm sure the manufacturer simply went the the cheapest bidder out of China, and it shows because they managed to botch/cut corners on an absolute no-brainer/standard finish. Funny that they should follow up the purchase with an e-mail expressing their concern about their customers satisfaction; including, of course, a request for a favorable review on Amazon. Bottom line: this bench has quite a poor finish and is overpriced. Had they spent an extra $2 on their end, the product could have been acceptable.

If you like sitting with a rat-tail file or a Dremel tool widening holes punched under-sized in the metal plate into which the bolts in the legs insert (but cannot because the holes are so horribly under-bored), then you will love this bench. I have been sitting from time to time over a few days now with my power Dremel tool widening these holes and I am now halfway done. Give me a few more days and I should actually be able to use this bench finally. Sigh.

Bench looks okay but I am unable to complete assembly with a nut missing any threads and once built will not be very durable with screws that already are stripped out. Look for a different item,I do not recommend this product.

Really strong odor, unable to use for days. For the price I expected better construction quality. Made in China. Would not buy again.

Likes - I like the size and look. When it's put together it is really nice. I like the compartment which holds music although some what small.Dislikes - STINKS BAD!!! I hope we don't get lung cancer or something. Made in china. One joint brace had a screw hole which was stripped. I fixed it. Most would send it back. When I raise the seat to put music in the seat doesn't hold in place well.Update: I have to tighten the bolts every few weeks. I can't tighten all the way as the screws holding the metal the wood may strip out. I don't like this thing. The smell has gone away.

Bought this to go with a PX-850 Casio. The bench looks good and I wanted something that looked better than our cheap adjustable bench. But after only a few minutes my 10 year old wanted her old bench back. It still looks good and will most likely end up in front of our old piano that is set up for our 3 year old to play.

With the all the accolades about the sound on this piano - the comparisons to a "concert grand" I expected a much more natural, less hollow tone. The tone was so much more tinny and shallow than my 100 year old upright, that I've decided not to replace the old one after all despite its many issues. Perhaps if the expectations weren't set so high by the claims of it sounding so realistic, I'd have not been so disappointed, but I really see very little comparison. I do think it'd be a great piano for someone who doesn't mind a very manufactured, electronic sound. But comparing it to a concert grand? No way. I'm considering returning it.

The product is of low quality (definitely NOT premium), poorly built and contains mismatching parts (i.e., the screws and bolts don't match the washers etc'). Mine came with a crack in the storage space and a painted over a defect in the wood (as if I wouldn't notice the thing is broken). Returning the product is a hassle as well as a hustle (as in, as in, I'm being hustled).

Don't get me started. I had a bad experience with the vendor and product.Save yourself a nightmare............

In all fairness, the bench itself was fine. It is NOT, however, what I would consider a "double duet" bench at all. I should have read the dimensions more closely instead of just the label. My 9-yr old and 3-yr old could sit together comfortably on it, but they took up the entire bench. Don't expect to be able to have 2 adults sit for a duet or even a student and teacher. The inside liner for the lid is a very cheap fabric and arrived damaged. I opted to send this back and will look for something that is a true "duet" bench.

The hinge is SUPER cheesy. Over all quality bad.Don't buy this one.

The bench arrived quickly BUT the lid had only one hinge attached. How does company (made in China) not see such an obvious defect. I returned it. Look for a bench made in the USA or Canada. I do not mind spending more.

Bench arrived with multiple manufacturing defects... screws that secure the hinge to the wood were screwed into grooves so corners were wobbly, a stripped out screw was used, some screws were drilled into the wood at an angle, a corner of the frame was chipped. On a positive note, the legs had a nice polished ebony finish. Not happy with vendor response that they would send the replacement parts for this and would refund the purchase price minus a 23% processing fee if I return the item. Also, I would pay for shipping back. All this for a defective item?? Think twice before buying from this vendor.

I am not going to return it, but a very disappoint shopping experience. Used one doesn't mean a broken one. The cover can not be opened and closed properly.

THE WORST EXPIRIENCE EVER