The Yamaha YDP-165 Arius is a stylish digital piano at an attractive price, and it is top of its class in terms of both playing feel and sound. There's a reason it sounds exactly like a grand piano – because its sound is based in every nuance on samples of Yamaha's very own flagship grand, the Yamaha CFX. And it feels like it too, with a GH3 (Graded Hammer 3) keyboard with hammer mechanism and graded key weights: The Yamaha YDP-165 Arius brings the feel of real concert hall into the player's living room. Until very recently, only the most expensive digital pianos included the features on offer here, such as the virtual modelling of the complex harmonic resonance of a grand piano's acoustic profile (VRM Lite), or Yamaha's tone escapement technology, which delivers a powerful, spatial sound.
The beating heart of every digital piano is its sound, and Yamaha – as one of the world's leading manufacturers of acoustic upright and grand pianos – has a huge catalogue at its disposal. The CFX is the true star of Yamaha's range of grand pianos, and has its place in many of the greatest venues around the globe: It was this illustrious high-end grand piano which has served as the acoustic model for the sound of the Yamaha YDP-165 Arius. Thanks to a painstaking sampling process, all the nuances and expressive intensity of a grand piano are reproduced here in minute detail. This is underscored by the VRM Lite function (Virtual Resonance Modeling), which simulates the complex resonant fabric that is created by the interplay between each of a piano's strings with one another, and of course the soundboard itself. Playing the Yamaha YDP-165 Arius will make every budding pianist feel like they are on stage at the one of the world's most storied concert halls.
The Yamaha YDP-165 Arius is not just remarkably authentic when it comes to sound, though: The keyboard, with its graded weighting, faithfully reproduces the natural sensation of playing a grand piano, with a somewhat heavier feel for the left hand, and a lighter touch for the descant notes. The half-damper feature also allows pianists to precisely engage the damper pedal. The Yamaha YDP-165 Arius offers all of the expressive playing variety of an acoustic piano, making it an ideal instrument for ambitious beginners who demand the very best right from the start. More advanced pianists, too, will be thrilled by the well-defined expressive control and rich, full sound of this digital piano.
For decades, Yamaha has been one of the world's best-known manufacturers of musical instruments and audio technology. The Japanese company's long history began at the end of the 19th century with the harmonium. The product range has constantly expanded since then, which has made Yamaha one of the few manufacturers today to offer almost the entire range of existing musical instruments: From upright and grand pianos to guitars, wind instruments, and bowed string instruments and from drums and percussion to electronic keyboards and synthesizers. Yamaha is also a major force in the field of audio engineering as a manufacturer of mixing consoles, amplifiers, PA systems, and more. Yamaha's guiding principle is to combine traditional craftsmanship with state-of-the-art technology.
Boring exercises are now a thing of the past! Integrated into the Yamaha YDP-165 Arius are 350 songs, among them many classics, as well as comprehensive practice material by Beyer, Burgmüller, Cherny, and Hanon, meaning learners are never short of variety. The notation can be displayed with the greatest of ease using the free-of-charge Smart Pianist app for tablet or smartphone, which can be attached to the piano via USB. The app also enables the effortless configuration of the instrument's various functions and the individual modulation of its sound using the Piano Room function. That's practising smarter, not harder!
VRM Lite
Digitally reproducing the sound of an acoustic upright or grand piano is a complex procedure, because every component of the original instrument is in constant interaction with every other part: keys, pedals, strings, soundboard, all working together to produce an impressive, moving sound with a host of complex nuances and resonances. For a truly authentic sound, it's clearly not enough to merely sample the sound of each individual key separately, even at different volumes. Equally important is to consider how the strings, as they vibrate, affect the movement of the rest of the instrument, and vice versa. The VRM Lite technology integrated in the Yamaha YDP-145 Arius emulates the interactions of the individual elements virtually and in real time. This creates a sound which is considerably more "alive" than the ones used for digital pianos based on sampling alone.