Yamaha P-515 key noise?

[ART.]

Hello! About a week and a half ago I picked up a Yamaha P-515, absolutely love it! I’ve been told it’s a very respected piano on this forum so hoping people have alot of experience with it, what is your experience with the key clicking noise? I’ve linked a video as an example, the black keys are worse than the white it seems, and especially the low B-flat sounds pretty clicky. Is this pretty par for the course, I wasn’t sure being this is the premium action in the 515. Any help would be great, or to know if I should try and exchange if it turns out the key click is unusual.

 

 

[ElmerJFudd]

Based on the volume of the car outside and the creak in your chair it sounds like you have amplified the audio in the video or the microphone sensitivity is set very high?  
 

All weighted digital piano keys make some noise when they hit the bottom of their path (louder of course when you strike with greater velocity) and when the key returns to its start position (louder if you release your finger quickly and allow the key to fly up freely).   We normally don’t pay any attention to this when playing as the noise of the action is drowned out by the piano sound of the instrument (via the speakers or in headphones).   The bottoming out of the key  coincides with the attack of the hammer to strings (in this case the audio sample’s attach).  And the return sound is just quieter than the strike because you have control over how quickly you release (often you don’t  let the keys fully return before striking again when repeating notes).  
 

Does every white key sound basically the same to you?  As well as every black key?
 

Does every key move freely?  Do they all have a an identical smooth motion, no scraping, squeaking or the like  during their path up and down?  When you actually play piano (with the volume on or in headphones) is noise from any particular key(s) distracting or behaves differently from the rest?  Do they all correctly trigger the piano sound and you have similar control of the range of volume via velocity?  
 

If all this is generally true, that’s normal. Acoustic pianos are not entirely silent either, we ignore sounds from the action because the strings, harp and sound board are mich more soundful (for lack of a better word). You can stop in at your local shop to compare to others but music stores aren’t as quiet as your home. 
  

Each key in Yamaha’s action design is replaceable and over years of ownership it may be necessary to have a key or two that gets a lot of use replaced.  

[ART.]

I don’t have the input sensitivity high, or at least I don’t think so. Just recording normally off of an iPhone. I do live pretty close to a road though, but other than that no. There’s no issues with the keys traveling up and down, and not really audible when playing with the volume about halfway up, only really noticeable if you’re hyper paying attention to it or aware of it.

[ElmerJFudd]

4 hours ago, ART. said:

I don’t have the input sensitivity high, or at least I don’t think so. Just recording normally off of an iPhone. I do live pretty close to a road though, but other than that no. There’s no issues with the keys traveling up and down, and not really audible when playing with the volume about halfway up, only really noticeable if you’re hyper paying attention to it or aware of it.

Right, so if the only sounds you’re hearing are bottoming and topping out and it’s basically the same sound for every key, then this is normal action noise from a weighted action digital piano with the sound off.  They all make some noise depending on how successful their efforts are to dampen.    As you notice, we ignore this when actually playing the piano.  
 

Again the things to look out for are an odd key that doesn’t sound the same, or doesn’t travel or behave the same as the others. Doesn’t properly trigger notes (not at all, or intermittent, or randomly loud, or always loud).   
 

Is your P-515 key noise louder than other P-515s?  It’s hard to tell from the video. You’d have to have another right next to it and compare it with the same phone recording.  

[Delaware Dave]

normal

[ewall08530]

  I just checked my Kawai ES520, playing the keyboard with it turned off and recording the sound with my iPad cam. I’m hearing basically the same amount of noise.  I should note that while actually playing this piano I’ve never been aware of, or distracted by the physical sound of the keyboard.