[FlyingRobot]

To me even the very highest end digital pianos still sound digital, but they are close enough and the benefits of digital outweigh what you might sacrifice in sound for most people.

I've noticed there is also fierce debate between digital pianos that are based on sampled sounds versus modeled. I believe most Roland digitals are modeled with Fourier series, while all/most of their competitors are sampled (not sure about Nord). That said Pianoteq is a popular after market VST that will bring a very convincing top tier modeled sound to even a low end digital piano.

[adrusi]

For anyone price-sensitive, I highly recommend getting the cheapest 88-key hammer-action keyboard you can find and hooking it up to Pianoteq Stage rather than buying a dedicated digital piano.

Exception if you're going to travel with it. Built-in sounds save you on setup time.

[tshaddox]

I’m not extremely concerned with sound quality, both because I intend to play around with lots of VSTs and because I‘ll be upgrading from a Roland RD-700SX which has served me incredibly well but which is very outdated when it comes to the sound engine!

[FlyingRobot]

Sounds like a good approach to me. Buy for the best action your budget will allow. With VSTs you can tailor the sound to your liking. I don't have a stake in Pianoteq, but if you aren't aware they claim that version 8 is going to be brought to iOS soon.

If you use a decent quality open back headphone, I feel like this is even more true, because the onboard sound becomes irrelevant.

[tshaddox]

I used Pianoteq on PC many years ago, and I just heard that they’re possibly coming to iOS soon. I’m looking forward to it.