Replacing the P70, the new and upgraded model, the Yamaha P85 boasts a variable hammer action system as well as being your full 88 keyed digital piano. The digital piano also has a song recorder feature and to help you keep timing, an inbuilt metronome. For personal listening, the Yamaha P85 has two headphone jacks available or alternatively, sound is heard by the two onboard speakers. Yamaha’s ‘Advanced Wave Memory’ stereo sampled sounds are an attribute to the new P85 model. What this means is that the unit can produce very realistic acoustic piano like sounds.
The amazingly close concert piano reproduction will really astound you and you will wonder why people invest in the bigger heavier pianos instead. At only 25lbs, the P85 is featherweight for the amount of functions it provides. There are a variety of different instrument sounds that can be obtained from the P85, including electric piano, strings, harp and much more.
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The P85 even allows you to select more two instrument sounds at the same time. A sustain pedal is included with the unit, along with the ability to record your own song as it contains a song recording feature.
Ok, so lets get critical and look at the plus and minus of the Yamaha P85:
Pro’s
For me the first and biggest advantage of this piano is, of course, its sound quality. There are 10 sounds that you can choose from- grand piano 1 and 2, e-piano (which stands for electric piano) 1 and 2, c-organ 1 and 2, strings and harpsichord 1 and 2, and the vibraphone. All these are amazing, especially the grand piano 2, which made me pleasantly surprised considering the Yamaha P-85 is such a compact digital piano. Yamaha has done a fine job in reproducing these instrument sounds.
Second, this unit really has a nice playing feel to it which is vitally important. The keys are really responsive, and the added pedal control allowed me to really play my heart out. In fact, the keys are a little heavy as compared to any other digital piano, but that is what makes the instrument so great! It does however, give you a much more accurate feel of playing on something like a grand piano.
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The other big ‘plus’ of this unit is that it is lightweight, yet it still looks and feels solid. It meant that I could move this around quite easily, which I found useful when wanting to have a jam with family and friends.
Not So Good
The P85 is not by any means perfect and perhaps one thing in particular could be improved upon.
Unfortuately Yamaha hasn’t provided a dedicated output to plug in an amplifier. I’m not exactly sure why this has been left out. There is a way around it though. There are headphone outputs and these can also be used to plug in an amplifier. Having said that though, at the lower end of Yamaha’s range, perhaps Yamaha’s didn’t believe many users would require this unit (although it very comfortably can handle it) to be used at gigs.
Final Verdict
Weighing up the good and not so good components of the Yamaha P85, I have no doubt that this is a beautiful instrument that sounds absolutely great, has a great feel playing, feels solid and has loads of variations to mix things up a little. If you want great sound and a solid feel for a really decent price, definitely consider the Yamaha P85.
I sincerely hope that you got some benefit out of this article. You also may be interested to check out some of our other product reviews available, including the: Yamaha P95
