Questions & answers – and who we are

If you have no idea yet: the adviser. Ten questions about you and your home, and a list with reasons at the end. If you already know what you need and only want to narrow things down: the configurator. Both routes end at the same instruments – they differ only in how much you already know.

The adviser asks about your situation („who plays?", „where will it stand?") and translates it into technical requirements. The configurator lets you turn the dials directly: number of keys, width in centimetres, budget, action. You can hand the adviser result over to the configurator with one click and keep filtering there.

No. Every tool runs in the browser without signing up. You only need an e-mail address if you want a result sent to you or want to hear about price drops – and even that is optional.

It asks ten questions – who plays, what the goal is, the budget, how much room you have, how the keys should feel, whether headphones and apps matter. Your answers do not feed a scoring system but a filter: each answer rules out instruments that fail it. After every question you see how many are left.

We say so – and relax your wishes one by one, starting with the one that excludes the most, until something is left. The relaxed wish is marked with ⚠ in the result. An empty list with no explanation would be the worst possible answer.

Your answers stay in your browser – come back and the adviser offers to continue where you left off. You can also have the result e-mailed to you with today’s prices.

Below the result there is a button into the configurator. Your characteristics are already set there – keys, action, width and the price range of your result – so you can narrow further without starting over.

Number of keys, width in centimetres, budget in steps, touch response, weighted keys, „buy once, buy right" and new/used. Every active filter appears as a chip above the list and can be removed on its own.

Two levels for people who do not want to buy again in two years. A proper piano means 88 keys, hammer action, touch response – the floor below which the instrument itself gets in the way of learning. Higher-grade action goes further: wooden keys or a hybrid action, three pedals. Both are tied to verifiable specifications, not to a manufacturer’s claim.

Because both levels require 88 keys. If the tool above still said „61 keys", the page would contradict itself. You see the change on the controls immediately and can undo it any time.

The width the instrument needs against a wall – for cabinet pianos including the stand, for acoustic pianos the actual body width. An 88-key digital piano needs about 133 cm, a 61-key keyboard about 94 cm. Measure first; it prevents the most common return.

Because the market is built in steps, not on a line. Between £600 and £900 almost nothing essential changes; between £300 and £600 the action does. The steps also show you which surcharge buys nothing – exactly the information a free field swallows.

Every product card carries a ⚖️. Pick two instruments, a bar appears at the bottom, one click opens the comparison. It shows the differences first, not twenty rows of data – what is identical is summarised at the end. That is the question you actually have when comparing.

Three columns are unreadable on a phone, and weighing three options at once is hard for anyone. You pick one, replace the other and compare again – that gets you to a decision faster. From three selected instruments onwards the page switches to the audition automatically.

A try-out with your own shortlist: your favourite sits at the top, one challenger after another comes up. You keep or swap – swiping works too. One instrument is left at the end, and you never had to weigh more than two at a time. You can put the line-up together yourself.

Only where it can be shown factually: more keys, higher polyphony, wooden instead of plastic action, more sensors. For sound, number of voices or price we deliberately mark nothing – that is taste or budget, not quality. If a value is missing on one instrument, the feature does not count as a difference at all; a gap in the data must not become a disadvantage.

It answers a different question: what do keyboards feel like? It is curated by us and explains action types in context. The head-to-head, by contrast, takes the instruments you are holding right now. To the keyboard comparison →

Your set-up: instrument, stand, bench, headphones, pedal – everything that together makes a playable rig. The ＋ on each card drops a part in. See ready-made stacks →

It puts an instrument on your watchlist and – if you leave an e-mail address – tells you when the price drops. Without an e-mail it stays a plain watchlist in your browser.

Daily, through our partner retailers’ product feeds. That is why product pages carry a date next to the price. Anything we do not have fresh is labelled as an estimate rather than passed off as today’s price.

Fuzzily – „P125", „p-125" and „yamah p125" all find the same instrument. It searches products and guides at once and labels every hit: model, assessment, used model or guide.

Yes – watchlist, stack and comparison live in your browser (localStorage), not with us. They survive a restart, but they do not travel to another device. Clear your browser data and they are gone.

Around 230 – digital pianos, stage pianos, keyboards, acoustic pianos and grands plus accessories from bench to headphones. Deliberately not the whole market: an instrument we cannot say anything honest about does not go in. To the catalog →

Because a digital piano barely ages. The predecessor is often the same instrument for half the price – and you need that information exactly when you decide, not tucked away behind a switch. Used gear is marked ♻️ everywhere, and when a used price faces a new price we say so. If you only want new gear, one tap hides them. Guide: buying used →

From manufacturer specifications, manuals and retailer data, standardised by us – so that „polyphony" means the same thing everywhere. Where manufacturers stay silent, it says „no data" instead of a guess.

That we can say something beyond the spec sheet for this instrument: strengths and limits in everyday use. The assessment comes from spec sheets, manufacturer data and the comparison with the other models in our catalog – we do not pretend to have played every instrument ourselves.

Because we do not have the value. We could make a plausible guess, but then you would no longer know which figures are solid. In a comparison a missing value therefore does not count as a disadvantage – it does not count at all.

From our partner retailers’ product feeds – currently Music Store, Musikhaus Kirstein and Pianelli – and from live listings on eBay for used and new gear. We do not set prices and we sell nothing ourselves.

Because street prices move and differ between retailers and promotions. A range is more honest than a single figure that is stale by the time you click. The product page shows the actual offers with their date.

No. We are not a shop. The buy buttons lead to retailers – marked with ⓦ, because we earn a commission on them. The price stays the same for you.

A small independent project from the Allgäu in southern Germany, started by music enthusiasts with a technical background and run by M-SON GmbH. What annoyed us was how instrument buying advice usually looks: endless top-30 lists plastered with ads, and in the end everything is a „test winner". We do the opposite – curated, not a catalog.

Four. Few products, a clear verdict: a handful of proven instruments per category. Every product says what speaks against it – the „limits" note is mandatory, not window dressing. We recommend the cheaper option when it is enough, and tell you which surcharge is not worth it; that costs us commission. Facts with a date: prices and data carry a „last checked" stamp.

We evaluate manufacturer data, documented long-term experience from musicians’ forums and return statistics, and match them against the requirements that actually matter – for learning the piano, action and touch response before the number of sounds. We are building up our own measurements step by step and label them as such.

From commissions on partner links, marked with ⓦ. What we recommend is decided by the matter alone. There are no paid placements, sponsored „tests" or sold ratings – and the budget ladder that talks you out of the pricier instrument is the best proof that we can afford that stance.

So you can see at a glance which link earns us money. Disclosure is required by law; the other reason is that a recommendation is only worth something if you know its interests.

No. This site runs without analytics tools, without advertising trackers and without a cookie banner – because there is nothing to ban. What you save, stack or compare stays in your browser. Privacy policy →

It is used only for what you left it for: your result, your stack or price notices on the instruments you saved. Every sign-up runs through double opt-in – you first get a confirmation mail, and nothing happens without your click in it. We neither buy nor sell addresses.

One click on the unsubscribe link in any mail. Or write to team@pianostax.com and we will do it for you.

German, English, French, Italian and Spanish. Prices and retailer offers follow the country – a used market looks different in Italy than in Germany.