A serious piano for a small space

I really can't say enough good things about this piano. Living in a small apartment makes having an acoustic piano difficult because there's not a lot of room and seriously practicing inevitably irritates the neighbors. This Roland is built for situations.

To start off, it is gorgeous. The black lacquering is top notch, giving the instrument a sense of gravitas that makes it feel a lot bigger than it is. Fortunately it's incredibly slim, a mere 55" wide and 14" deep. The keyboard is on par with some baby grands I've played on, very responsive with keys you can really lay into, and feel right from pianissimo to fortissimo. I love the feel of the ivory-feel keys. They are the real deal.

Looks good, feels good, and sounds good too! The piano sound is rich and doesn't have that "electronic" sound that some earlier digital pianos I've worked with had. The speakers are plenty loud for the room I've put it in, and has a nice warm sound across the entire dynamic range. But the magic comes in when I plug in headphones – I can play to my heart's content and not disturb anybody! The built-in metronome comes in handy for breaking down tricky passages, and the audio in jacks let me plug in a drum machine to back me up when I practice jazz soloing.

If there's one criticism I have of this instrument, it's the bench that comes with it. It's a little rickety and tends to creak despite my best efforts to tighten the legs.

Probably the best praise I can give this instrument is that after I turn it on and get playing, I forget I'm playing a digital piano at all; it's just a piano, and a glorious one at that.