I am not a professional musician, just a hobbyist with a few years of instruction as a kid, and I like to play from time to time. I live in an apartment and wanted a keyboard with a quality piano sound that was portable, and would accept both PA speakers and headphones, could hook up to a laptop via usb and yes, looked good.
This keyboard meets all those criteria for me. I bought it used (but in nearly new condition) for $300 which included the pedal and an x-frame stand. The keys are a bit heavy and yes the touch classical pianists expect from an acoustic piano isn't there. But there is some velocity pickup, it isn't like playing a cheap casio synth.
The piano sound, which I use 99% of the time, is solid. You turn the board on, and you're there. Playing immediately. No setup, no pushing buttons, just sit down and play, which is great.
For the stage performer, while it is a bit heavy, I think it would work well although I've never used it in that capacity. The keys are big and well spaced, and there are some "panic" buttons where if you get off-track with your settings, you can just jump to a known setting with a click. Good thinking from M-Audio.
If you want more voices, you can patch this in to your computer or a rack and apply whatever voice you want, or something you've created. Flexibility to grow.
Not having speakers built in means you can have audio quality as great as your wallet can burden. I have some small M-Audio units and they're very very good. I'm not sure what the technical term is, but the spacial quality when you're playing right or left hand side of the keyboard is nice, not too extreme, just a bit left or right as it would be in an acoustic.
Overall, this unit does what it's advertised to do, and it does it quite well in my opinion, at a great price. You can easily pay $1000 and have a keyboard that isn't that much better. Before I purchased this I was looking at a Korg model, and happened to catch a band where the keyboardist was using one. He said he had tons of issues, two of the keys stopped working and it was heavy as heck. $3000 keyboards have issues too, even if they are covered by warranty. I think a more direct competitor of this is the Yamaha (P90?) and there is another model that's all silver and wood-like plastic, which also has a great sound. Of course, Yamaha's keys are made to feel like the keys on a Yamaha acoustic, so if you don't like that feel, it might not be for you. They are also a bit more pricey, but not by much.Get more detail about M-Audio ProKeys Premium Stage Piano.
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