REVIEW – August 1, 2024 – Donner DDP-400 digital piano | Under $1000 | Furniture cabinet style – The Donner music products company is a Chinese based company which has been producing a variety of digital pianos and keyboards for about 12 years. They are a relatively new company compared to the more well known popular brands of digital pianos such as Yamaha, Kawai, Casio, Korg, and Roland.
THE DONNER COMPANY
The Donner products are available for sale primarily on Amazon and on the Donner company website. Donner products are generally not carried by on-line or regular music local stores in the US. Nevertheless, the Donner company has been working hard to aggressively promote and market their different digital pianos and keyboards on Amazon.
I have played many Donner portable and furniture cabinet digital pianos in the past and I generally do not recommend them, especially as compared to real acoustic pianos and also as compared to the more well known name brands. The piano playing experienced that I have had with their products was, I am sorry to say, just not good. Plus there are some overall issues with their piano key actions and sound that do not appeal to me.
What Donner is good at producing are digital pianos which are fairly attractive, have some nice digital features (bells & whistles), and sell for a low price relative to the “name brands.” The Donner company is made up of some very nice people and they seem to “try hard,” but they have a very long way to go.
The new DDP-400 is a case in point. Based on the way it looks, the features it has, and the price point it is at, this model is considered their newest cabinet model and is also the top-of-the-line digital piano in 2024. With all this in mind, I was hopeful the new DDP-400 model would finally be a digital piano from Donner that I could like and enjoy for its piano playing realism. But…unfortunately…this is not the case.
INTRO TO THE DONNER DDP-400
The DDP-400 sells for about $800 to $900 on average, depending on who is selling it and when and where you buy it. It seems as if there is not one set price for it. It also does not automatically come with a bench. This newer model is just OK as a digital piano, but it is far from what a real piano would play and sound like, and it does not come close to the well known popular brands of digital pianos in this price range.
From the outside cabinet it looks like it would have potential and “rise to the occasion” for a more premium digital piano when it comes to to a more realistic piano playing experience. But…it definitely does not do that.
I am disappointed in the key action, the piano sound, and the pedaling, along with the sustained piano sound when using the sustain pedal. The DDP-400 does look attractive in this price range, but it definitely is not a digital piano I would recommend to any of my piano students or to anyone else looking for a very good piano playing experience in the $800 to $1000 price range.
I much prefer any of the name brands such as Casio, Yamaha, Korg, Kawai, and Roland as compared to this Donner model. This new DDP-400 does “look like” a nice piano, as I have already mentioned, and people do shop with their “eyes,” so the appearance of the cabinet does matter to some people. But don’t let that sway you because sometimes the beauty of the outside does not reveal the reality of the inside.
Also, Donner, like a few other brands, tends to market and promote their digital pianos models as being perfectly incredible (my words) when it comes to what their pianos can do. In other words, they, like other brands, make their piano models sound way better than they really are! Typical.
If you have never played a piano before and/or are a beginner, then if you order a DDP-400 and start playing it, you might think that it works good and plays like a piano. That’s because you may not know what a good digital or acoustic piano should really be like. I am not saying this is a bad piano…it is not bad. But…it would be unlikely that you could advance in your playing skills much past beginner level with this model because of its limitations.
Below I will point out the DDP-400 deficiencies as well as some good things about it so you can get a much better idea of what this digital piano is really like, starting with the key action
KEY ACTION
The key action in any piano, whether that be acoustic or digital piano, is the most important aspect of the piano playing experience. If the keys don’t move up & down properly, or if they are physically too heavy, too light, or too noisy, then those are things that cannot be changed. Expressive piano sound is definitely important, but the way the keys move and respond is by far the biggest concern. Just because there are 88 black & white keys that look like piano keys does not mean that the keys work like they should.
As far as the Donner DDP-400 key action goes, after playing it extensively, I can honestly say that as much as I wanted it to be a good piano key action playing experience, it definitely was not that way. The most obvious area of concern for me was that the weight of the keys was much too light, particularly on the white keys. It’s not the “plastic keys” themselves that are necessarily lighter than other digital piano keys, but it’s the way those keys are “weighted” on the interior of the key action.
As soon as I started playing the white keys in a normal way, they moved downwards much too too fast…almost as if the keys were not really weighted….but the keys definitely are weighted and not like a spring loaded keyboard key. I rarely complain about there being “lighter-weight moving keys” in digital pianos because usually it is the other way around where keys can be unusually stiff to press down on some brands and models, such as Donner.
But in this case the white keys go down way too fast with normal touch and without much resistance with normal finger force. When that happens it is much easier to lose good control over the key movement, lose control over the volume per key/note, and lose good control over the sound dynamics.
On real acoustic pianos the down-weight (aka touch-weight) of middle C is measured in gram weight. This is how it is done on acoustic pianos and other digital pianos and the down-weight force usually comes in on average at about 55 to 60 grams based on my experience with many brands and models of acoustic and digital pianos.
In fact on a number of digital pianos I have played, the down-weight force can be higher than 60 grams on up to and even past 70 grams of touch-weight on middle C….and even that is OK and much better than the keys being much too light. On the Donner DDP-400 the touch-weight on middle C is at about 45 grams which is way lighter than it should be at minimum standards. It’s not that you cannot play this model, because you can. But the keys just will not react like a piano or any good acoustic or digital piano that I have ever played.
The key action down-weight/touch-weight key movement is just way too light and can cause poor piano playing habits, especially if you want to improve in your piano playing skills. You won’t be able to improve your piano playing skills or play piano like you might have done on acoustic pianos or better new digital pianos.
Again, this Donner DDP-400 is playable to some degree and the key action is not terrible or bad…it is just way too light in key movement to come anywhere close to a real acoustic piano or any good name brand digital piano in this price range like Korg, Casio, Kawai, Yamaha, or Roland. So don’t believe all the “hype” you might read in ads for the key action in this digital piano.
The next thing to consider is the weight and balance comparing the white and black keys to each other. There are 52 white keys on a piano and 36 shorter black keys. On this DDP-400 the black keys are noticeably firmer and heavier than the white keys. The black keys feel better when it comes to the weight of those keys as compared to the white keys. But this noticeable difference in weight makes the black & white keys out of balance with each other.
It would be better for the black keys to be the same touch-weight (aka: down-weight) as the white keys or even a bit lighter in weight. But the black keys being noticeably heavier is not a good thing overall when it comes to playing piano and having a balanced key action for your fingers to play.
The “feel” of the key-tops is fine with the white keys being a shiny white plastic materiel and the blacks keys being a smooth slightly textured matte black finish. Overall I like the physical feel of the key-tops on the DDP-400. But if you tend to have sweaty fingers then you might not like the key tops as much because you can slide a bit because of the sweat not being absorbed by the keys like you have get on a key action with synthetic ivory and ebony key-tops.
One more thing I noticed about the key movement is that it is somewhat noisy when pressing down both the black and white keys. When the keys hit bottom when pressing them down they make a noticeable “thumpy sound,” like there is not enough padding for the keys/hammers as they strike the rail. This thumpy sound is not crazy loud, but it is definitely noticeable if you are playing at lower volumes on the piano or especially if you are using headphones for silent practice…then you can really notice that somewhat thumpy key action sound. So just be aware of that.
PIANO SOUND REALISM & QUALITY
Piano sound realism and response is the 2nd most important aspect in any piano. There is a lot that goes on in a piano to produce a good piano sound. There are over 200 strings in an acoustic piano from the low octave strings to the high treble strings and to reproduce all that natural sound in a digital piano that has no strings is not easy. Piano sound consists of good quality tone, natural sustain and decay, natural resonances, and especially expression…or as I call it, “musical colors.”
When a piano key is pressed down in a real acoustic piano the key engages a felt hammer inside the piano which strikes the string or strings. The strings vibrate and the sound vibration is amplified through the natural wooden soundboard inside the piano as well as through the cabinet itself.
When the piano hammer strikes the strings in a real acoustic piano and those strings vibrate, they can vibrate at faster and louder rates or slower and softer rates. All the changes in those strings as they vibrate creates tonal changes and volume changes which produce “expression, dynamics, and musical color. If a digital piano cannot reproduce those elements very well, then the piano sound will be noticeably very artificial and without musical color “feeling.”
A good analogy would be watching a TV show that is supposed to have great colors in it but you only see half of those colors or the picture is very bland and uninspiring. Nobody really wants a TV that produces limited amounts of colors or the colors or not vibrant or bright given how beautiful many colors can otherwise be.
There are 2 acoustic piano sounds in this model, one a bit more mellow although still somewhat bright and sharp, and other one that is even brighter/metallic. The normal resonances, dynamics, and tonal changes in both piano sounds are very minimal when playing the keys/notes and it is difficult to play good expressive music with the master volume control on a normal medium volume.
However, when the volume of the piano is set at much higher volume db levels, then the tonal changes and expression somewhat improves, but not unless you playing this piano at relatively high volume levels, which is not good.
If you are a beginner then the lack of real piano sound/tone and expression in the DDP-400 at normal master volume levels will likely not be an issue because you may not be aware of what’s going on. Beginners are just trying to learn where to put their fingers on the keys, how to strike the keys, and trying to play the right notes. Maybe you already play piano to some degree, but in a limited way and also won’t necessarily notice these limitations.
However, once you get past the beginner level then these natural organic elements that are missing with regard to good quality expressive piano sound at normal volume levels will definitely matter because otherwise you will not be able to grow in your piano playing and listening skills or play at a skill level beyond beginner.
But here is also something I discovered while using one of my studio stereo headphones in this model and listening that way. The lack of tonal dynamics and colors I was just mentioning improved quite a bit when playing with my headphones plugged in. I have a fairly good $100 set of Sony headphones I used and the DDP-400 piano sound was surprisingly better listening through the headphones.
What this experience tells me is that it’s the internal speaker system of this DDP-400 (amplifiers/speakers) which is primarily the cause of these issues with the artificial and limited piano tone I was experiencing. In other words, the internal sound system is just not very good at producing quality piano sound.
The volume is loud enough, but the piano sound, tonal realism, and expressive quality is being negatively affected by this inadequate internal speaker system based on my experience with it, and there is nothing you can do about that except for turning the master volume way up…and that’s not good. So this situation alone would cause me not to want to own this piano.
Another thing I noticed about the piano sound is when you go from one key to the next either up or down the keyboard. the piano sound quality and tone is not necessarily consistent. In other words, one key might play a slightly more mellow piano tone while the next key might sound brighter in tone. This happens occasionally but it’s not a big problem in my opinion.
I have seen and heard these types of inconsistencies before in digital pianos and it is typical of some of these lower price (under $1000) “off-brands” as I call them. It is just expected and I am definitely not surprised.
A beginner is unlikely to notice these types of things playing from one note to the next, but someone who is a better player and is more skilled will likely notice these things after a while and there is nothing you can do about it. It is what it is and is just part of the design and makeup of this model.
Finally, in real acoustic pianos and good digital pianos, when you press the keys more softly and gently, the piano sound starts off more mellow because the “strings” are not vibrating very fast. As you press the keys harder and harder, then that piano sound is supposed to brighten/sharpen up and do it smoothly as the strings vibrate faster and harder, and the reverse is true as you play the keys a bit more softly.
Those normal piano tonal changes when playing the keys at different velocities should be smooth transitions and the tonal changes should not be jumpy but should be even. On the DDP-400 it is not that way. I am not talking about “volume” changes, but I am talking about tone from mellow and soft on up to brighter and more metallic. There should be many velocity levels of tonal changes (musical colors) in a piano and the DDP-400 has only seems to have 2 of them when playing the keys/notes…mellower and brighter.
The piano sound instantly jumps from mellow to brighter tones when playing notes from slower velocities to faster velocities, and is something that you’ll notice if you are at a higher piano playing skill level. So not only does the piano sound/tone instantly jump and change on each key depending how hard you press the key, but there are only 2 real changes I could hear instead of many tonal changes.
So again, these are things that I expected from this piano because Donner simply does not have the more advanced piano sound technology like the name brand digital piano companies do. Donner is using much older digital piano sound technology and in this price range for this type of brand, you can only expect so much.
It’s not bad and you can still play piano overall. But again, this type of thing will likely inhibit the better piano player from getting the piano sound colors and expression they would otherwise want and it will also keep a beginner from advancing in their piano playing and appreciation skills.
To me this is all about electronic resources and Donner spending or not spending the money to produce a much better digital piano. Donner is obviously shooting for a “price point” and has to use lower quality and less expensive technology to get there. The old saying is still true…”you don’t usually get something for nothing.”
That’s also why the piano polyphony specification is 128-note polyphony rather than 192 or 256 note polyphony normally found in the name brands. Having 128-noye polyphony processing power is not bad and it does the job for the two piano sounds. But the overall quality of the piano tone could be better if Donner had the latest polyphony chip technology.
So when it comes to piano sound realism and expression in this newer Donner model digital piano, it is OK and not terrible. You can play piano music on it. But when you are spending close to $1000 on a new digital piano, you should be able to grow into it instead of grow out of it when it comes to the realism and response of the piano sound. The DDP-400 falls short of allowing the student or player to get good dynamics and tonal expression out of the piano sound when playing music in normal ways, regardless of the type or style of music you are playing.
PEDALS
The triple pedal unit on digital pianos can sometimes be overlooked, especially if you are at a more beginner level or you just assume the pedals would work properly, especially the sustain pedal. When it comes to features and functions on these digital pianos I always try to warn people not to “assume” anything as far as the standard features working correctly.
There are 3 pedals on the DDP-400 including sustain, sostenuto, and soft. Most people, especially at beginner and intermediate levels seldom use the middle sostenuto pedal or the left soft pedal. If you play at higher intermediate or more advanced skill levels, then you may use those pedals once in a while and they work fine and do what they are supposed to do.
The physical pedals have a nice design to them, are brass plated, but are physically quite thin in their construction. However, they make a loud knocking noise when the pedals come back up and hit the bottom of the pedal board after pressing the pedals down. That knocking sound is noticeably loud and can also be distracting to others in the room, unless you are very careful not to release the pedals too fast. Beginners and intermediate players usually have less foot control than advanced players over the physical movement of pedals.
The right sustain/damper pedal that is most important and used over 95% of the time. Without a good functioning sustain pedal, your music will not sound good. The sustain pedal is supposed to “sustain” the piano sound when you press and hold the pedal down.
The sustain time (aka: decay time) should allow the piano sound on the notes you are playing to be heard for at a couple seconds for the highest keys to least 7-10 seconds for the middle keys, and up to 25 or more seconds on the lower keys when holding down that sustain pedal.
The DDP-400 does a good job getting a longer sustained sound out the piano when holding down the pedal. Some digital pianos don’t do this very well and have short sustained (aka: decay) piano sound. But the DDP-400 definitely has longer sustain/decay time than other digital pianos out there in this price range.
However, there is a problem with the piano sound quality & realism when it is sustained by the pedal or when you simply play and hold down a key without letting it go. The issue is that the sustained piano sound just does not sound good, not like a real piano.
To my ears it sounds like a sine wave tone without piano sound realism, kind of like a flat tone without any life to it. In other words, the sustained piano sound on various notes sounds very artificial without any resemblance to a natural real sustained piano sound.
Beyond that, that sustained artificial sine wave (flat) sound is tinny sounding and has a “vibrato” in it as it sustains and decays. The sustained notes on the piano should not have a vibrato sound in them nor should they sound tinny and metallic. I have heard a lot of digital pianos when the piano sound is sustaining and the DDP-400 is definitely one of the worst I have heard.
It’s almost as if there is something wrong with the DDP-400 in this way, but there is nothing “wrong” with it. It’s just the way the technology works in this model…and that is not good.
This artificial sustain piano tone is especially noticeable when playing single notes towards the middle to upper octaves of the keyboard, but it’s also noticeable when playing chords or other notes together simultaneously. The longer a piano note sustains, the more noticeable this tinny sine wave sound becomes. It’s almost as if it’s synthesized like a synthesizer keyboard.
If you are a beginner player or student then this situation may not be as obvious or bothersome to you and you may not notice it. But it definitely can affect your playing as you grow in your piano playing skills or if you simply like good piano music and already play at a higher skill level. For this reason alone I would not want to own this piano. It’s something that a person would otherwise assume would work fine and sound good, but it does not.
“THE BELLS & WHISTLES” – FEATURES AND FUNCTIONS
Many new digital pianos have what I call “the bells & whistles” that can make playing a digital piano more fun and also help with learning to play piano better. Even though the DDP-400 has a lot of noticeable “down-sides” with regard to a more realistic piano playing experience, it does have a number of fun & useful features that can help make your music more enjoyable.
There are 128 instrument sounds including a bright acoustic piano sound and a regular acoustic piano sound. These 128 sounds consist of many instruments including brass, woodwinds, a few guitars, synths, bells, organs, and some additional single percussive instrument sounds.
Some of the instrument sounds are good, some are OK, none of them are great, and some of those instrument tones sound like toys. It’s kind of a “mixed bag,” but depending on the type of music your are playing then perhaps some of those non-piano instrument sounds may be useful. You can layer/mix any 2 of those instrument sounds together and split any 2 sounds with one on the left hand and one on the right hand.
Other features which are a lot of fun include a drum rhythm (drummer) player which has many different drum styles you can select from to give you some rhythm backup to your songs like a live drummer would do. It sounds pretty good and the tempo of that drummer can be controlled so that you can play at slower or faster speeds.
Another cool feature is the auto accompaniment “one man band.” This feature can be found in other digital pianos so it is not unique. But…it is fun to use if you know how to play chords with your left hand. You just go buy a songbook with chord symbols (like guitar chords), only they would be keyboard chords using 3 fingers (or 1 finger for the entire chord), and you play these chords on your left hand and a melody on your right hand.
The interactive music styles will put in instruments within that rhythmic style that will give you the feeling you are playing with a band and it tends to make you sound way better than you really are! There is everything from rock to jazz, to Latin, waltz, and swing to country, to oldies, new stuff, and everything in-between.
There is also a feature called “harmony” which turns the sound of one note on the right hand into a full 3-finger chord. In other words, the harmony feature makes one note played on the right hand sound like a 3-note chord on the right hand, based on the chords you’re playing on the left hand. It’s a cool feature to have and makes you sound good, especially if you don’t know how to play very well.
The accompaniment styles sound pretty good but not near as good or realistic as what Yamaha has to offer in their interactive model under $1000 called the DGX-670. The DGX-670 sounds much better and more realistic in every way (including piano sound and key action) than this Donner DDP-400. However, the Donner DDP-400 is more attractive as a furniture cabinet model.
But don’t let the “looks” fool you with any digital piano. It’s first and foremost what the piano can do as a “piano” and the piano playing experience that you get rather than what the “bells & whistles” can do for you that is the most important part of any digital piano.
The DDP-400 also has special effects such as reverb, echo, chorus, and a few other effects which can be useful depending on the instrument sounds you are using. There is a digital metronome to help you with learning rhythm and timing in various time signatures and you can change tempo on it when necessary.
You can also record your playing and then play it back which can be useful when learning to play specific songs, especially if you are a piano student. In addition to that there are a bunch of demo songs in the memory of this piano and you can also access a number of standard lesson book songs to play along with, assuming you would want to get those music/songbooks to play those songs
Another feature that almost all digital pianos have these days is a “key transpose” function. You can electronically transpose the key your playing in to different keys which can be useful when wanting to sing a song and trying to get it into your vocal range and not knowing how to actually play the song in a different key, or if you just want to modulate up or down 1/2 step at a time to the next key.
When making changes to a variety of the “bells & whistles” in this model and setting up your sounds, it’s nice to be able save some settings so that you can easily recall them later. The DDP-400 has 2 “memory” settings so that you can save up to 2 custom settings that you have done into memories. That’s a nice feature to have, especially when trying to save multiple features & effects such as layers, splits, effects, transpose, etc.
So given the fact that this DDP-400 has a lot of “fun” features which can be useful, this piano does have some good things to offer. But it always gets down to what is more important to you when you are spending this kind of money, the fun “bells & whistle” or getting the most realistic piano playing experience you can get in your price range?
I happen to like the additional fun features and I use them from time to time. But for me the realism of the piano key action, piano sound, and pedaling response is by far the most important aspects of any digital piano and the DDP-400 is no exception.
BLUETOOTH WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY
One other useful feature that is built into this piano is a Bluetooth wireless audio connection. This one can certainly be considered another one of those “bells & whistles” and it’s becoming more common on many different digital pianos. I happen to like it and it can be useful because you can turn your digital piano internal speaker system into a home stereo system and stream music or audio from your Bluetooth enabled external device, like a phone or tablet, and play it through the speaker system of the DDP-400.
As soon as you power up the DDP-400 then it automatically connects with your Bluetooth wireless feature on your phone or tablet and then you can play any type of audio from those devices through the piano speaker system.
This Donner piano does a good job of making that happen and there is plenty of volume to hear the external sound of the Bluetooth audio streaming come through the piano internal speaker system. You can also play the piano “live” along with any music being streamed through the piano speaker system. This is a cool feature for those people who would use it and so Donner did a good job of including this function in the piano.
USER INTERFACE
The Donner DDP-400 has a nice user interface with controls on both the left and right side of the keyboard. The left side controls include the OLED display screen giving you info about the buttons you select and the features you are using. You can display all the instrument sounds, the drum rhythms, the accompaniment styles, intro’s & endings for the accompaniment styles, start and stop for accompaniments and recording, special effects, recording feature, metronome settings, and the 2 custom memory settings.
There is also a button on that user interface that allows you to toggle through a variety of user features for setting volumes for various features, types of effects with control over the intensity of the effects, and controls over the touch sensitivity of the key action piano sound. You can change the transposed key with the those user buttons while using the +/- control buttons to advance through the amount of change that you want.
So over all these left side buttons and display screen do a good job in giving you the info and control you need over the various features in this piano. The buttons also have a red light in each one when you have depressed that button so that you know it’s on and being used.
Some digital pianos out there in this price range don’t have a display screen like this one not do many of them have as many “bells & whistles” and controls for them as the DDP-400 does. So when it comes to some fun and useful features beyond playing the piano, the DDP-400 does have them.
The right side user interface allows you to control the master volume knob of this piano and then use another knob separately for the volume of the interactive rhythm accompaniments. Also, the on/off button for the entire instrument is also on that interface panel.
What the DDP-400 does not have is a proprietary controller app for iOS or Android tablets and phones so that you can more easily access the various features and function through the app from the color touchscreen of your device. In this price range the Casio, Kawai, Yamaha, and Roland digital piano companies do have apps for their pianos which is very useful.
So even through some of the other digital pianos in this price range don’t have user display screens, they do have good user apps for their devices which Donner does not have.
It just depends on what works better for you…a piano controller app for your device or a display screen and many buttons on the piano itself. Some digital pianos have both…a good user app for their device and function buttons on the piano for immediate control of the piano. One such piano which is very popular is the Casio PX-870 which sells for $1199 on-line You can check out that piano model at the following link to compare it to this one: Casio PX-870 Review.
HARDWARE CONNECTIVITY PORTS
The DDP400 has some very nice hardware connectivity ports for connecting to and from external devices. It has dual audio inputs and dual audio outputs for people who want to connect this piano to an external audio system to hear the piano come out of that system or who want to connect external audio devices to this model and hear the sound of the external device come through the piano speaker system.
The DDP-400 also has standard midi in and out ports which most people don’t actually use anymore. However, it does have a USB port to connect USB MIDI from the piano to an external device like iPad or Android tablet to use interactive 3rd party apps. Almost all good digital pianos these days have a USB port.
There is also 2 stereo 1/4″ headphone jacks under the right front side of the piano so that you can practice in privacy without anyone else hearing your music. However, as I have mentioned before, when playing your music using headphones, you will hear a somewhat “thumpy” sound coming from the mechanical key action when the keys hit bottom as you are playing.
The key action noise is not terrible, but it is noticeable. So when you are using headphones, someone else in the room will likely notice the key noise when you are playing and that could be a bit bothersome depending on what’s going on.
INTERNAL SPEAKER SYSTEM
The speaker system in this piano has a total of 30 watts using 2 amplifiers going through 2 speakers. This smaller amount of rated power as compared to a few other digital pianos seems like there might not be enough volume coming out of the piano. So I was surprised to find that there is way more than enough power and volume to generate a very loud piano sound if you want it, so there’s no problem there.
The 2 speakers point downward underneath the piano which is OK, but it would be better if there were 2 more speakers so a couple of them could point forward towards the player, or maybe out of the top of the piano. Nevertheless, there is plenty of volume coming out of the DDP-400 and it should be sufficient for most people.
One thing I did notice about the speaker system which I mentioned earlier is concerning the piano tonal dynamics. Unless you are playing this piano fairly loud and cranking up the amplifiers, the tonal dynamics and quality of the piano is really not very good. It’s noticeably artificial in sound and you cannot get much dynamic expression out of the speakers.
If you turn up the master volume somewhat loud, then the dynamic expression out of the piano sound gets better, but definitely not at lower volumes. There are a lot of people who do not want to play loud or hear loud playing, so this lack of dynamic piano expression at normal volume is definitely a downside to this model.
Also, on a positive side, when using the Bluetooth audio streaming there is plenty of volume for the audio from an external device for music coming through the piano speaker system from your phone or tablet.
DDP-400 CABINET & WARRANTY
After many years of working with digital pianos, the one thing that remains consistent is that many people “shop with their eyes.” What I mean by that is the outside appearance of the piano can be very important. This is because you will likely look at the piano more than you will actually play it. It’s a piece of furniture for most people so the cabinet appearance can be very important.
With regard to the Donner DDP-400 cabinet design and appearance, it really does look good and that is the best thing about this model in my opinion. The cabinet is contemporary in its design, it is a bit taller than some other digital pianos in this price range, the cabinet has front support legs instead of just being a pedestal style, and it is fairly compact so can fit into smaller spaces. It looks good with its key cover closed or open.
Also, this model has a very attractive black reflective material on the front of the piano above the keys and a key cover to cover up the keys when not in use and it slides in and out quietly. The music rest that holds the music is larger and full size, unlike other Donner digital pianos that have small music rests that are not full size, so that aspect of the cabinet is very nice. There are also built in “music clips” the help hold the pages of music books open or to keep sheet music in place.
It also has a 1/2 size privacy panel on the back which makes the piano look more attractive and gives it more of a finished appearance. You can still “see through” the back of the piano from the front of it because that panel only goes half way up, but at least there is something rather than nothing when it comes to that 1/2 size panel. So I do like it for what it is.
The cabinet color is available in a matte black and matte brown color and both cabinets are attractive is design with slightly rounded corners and the “finish” on the cabinet is slightly textured to give it a more natural look. However, just like all brands of digital pianos in this price range, the outside of the piano is not real wood but instead it is a “photo finish laminate” with MDF board underneath. Nevertheless, it looks good and the cabinet seems to be durable.
The black cabinet color will likely be more popular than brown because most people prefer black. But the brown color cabinet is a good option if you like the “earth tones” better for your home decor. A nice bench is also included with this piano which is not always the case with a couple of other brands and models in this price range. So having a nice bench is always a good thing.
The dimensions of this model are approximately 54″ x 16″ x 35″ and it weighs about 117 pounds. So for most people the cabinet is not too big. But if you need something more compact and less deep from the wall, there are alternatives for a good piano like that in other brands.
Also, for a bit more money you can get a single size standard height padded bench called the EC2044 which normally sells for about $70 on Amazon. The bench seems to be a nice one and a music storage compartment in it as well.
The Donner company lists the warranty on their digital pianos for 2 years in the USA. Two years is generally OK but most name brand digital pianos offer a 3 year factory warranty for digital pianos in this price range.
Since Donner is not a regular name brand carried at digital piano stores on-line or locally, then it’s hard to tell if they will be able to supply any needed parts, etc, should the piano need it under warranty. I just don’t have experience with how their company works in those situations.
FINAL THOUGHTS
So…I really have mixed feelings about this Donner DDP-400 model. On one hand the cabinet looks very attractive and this model is a relatively low price. It has good, loud volume from its speaker system and has a useful Bluetooth wireless inbound audio streaming feature.
It’s overall easy to use, has a reasonably good user interface on the piano, and quite a few “bells & whistles” for the price and you can definitely have a lot of fun with it. But how often will you use those additional instrument sounds (clarinets, trumpets, guitars, accordions, etc), plus the drum rhythms and other “bells & whistles” as compared to playing the piano and wanting that to be your focus?
However, even though you can play piano on it and it is OK for beginners, it still is a lot of money to spend on something which really does not play or sound like a real piano. Beginners may not be able to tell the difference, but once you start playing and growing in your skills a bit, then you’ll likely notice the negative things I previous mentioned in this review with regard to the key action, piano sound realism, pedaling, and the overall piano playing experience.
I give credit to Donner for “trying” to come up with a better digital piano than what they have had in the past, but they still have a long way to go. Donner advertises that this model will give you a performance comparable to “premium pianos.” This is definitely not true and this model comes nowhere close to doing that. This is all just advertising hype to get you excited about buying this model.
Also, in their ads Donner says the following: “Donner’s designers extended Digital piano speaker cabinet, which increases the length of the strings, have a larger soundboard area, the volume and timbre are larger and fuller than ordinary pianos, the harmonics are richer, and the resonance is stronger.
First of all, there are no strings in this piano…it is digital. There is no separate “speaker cabinet” in this model, it has just 2 normal speakers facing downward. There is no “soundboard” in this model, either small or large. Nothing resonates in this piano other than sound going through speakers. The timbre & volume are not necessarily larger and fuller than some other “ordinary” digital pianos in this general price range. Again, it’s all advertising exaggeration & hype.
As far as the piano sound “harmonics” go, there are very few “harmonics” in the piano sound. No overtones, no sympathetic vibrations, none of the normal organic sound content you would find in a regular acoustic piano or a better digital piano.
Donner talks about their key action in their ads and they say the following: “precisely matching the finger strength changes.” This piano absolutely does precisely matching the finger strength changes that are needed.” However, the key action movement on the whites keys are way too light for any of that to happen. This is just another exaggeration.
Finally, Donner says this about the pedals: “And with the same configuration as a grand piano, the metal pedals allows you to express your emotions through accurate dynamics.” However, these pedals have absolutely no similarity to the pedals of a grand piano other than there are 3 pedals. The pedals don’t work the same as a grand piano or upright piano, they don’t do the same things, and are not constructed the same way.
Donner, like a few other digital piano companies, definitely exaggerates their claims so that they can get you to purchase their products. You won’t usually know these things that they have said until you receive your order and get the piano home and try it out. These product limitations still may not bother you and you may be OK with them…for now.
But for Donner to say these “descriptive “over-the-top” things is not good either. They could simply not exaggerate and just say they believe they have a good product that you will enjoy and just point out the good features and stop exaggerating.
But as far as my feelings go concerning the DDP-400, go ahead and buy it if you are OK with the reality of this model and what it will and will not do for you. But for approx $1000, I recommend you do not purchase this model if what you want or need is a better piano playing experience like you might get on a slightly higher priced digital piano in another brand.
The DDP-400 will not give you that experience in my opinion and I would not recommend this model to any of my piano students for that reason. I care about the realism of the piano with regard to playing piano which is why most people want a good digital piano…to mostly play piano.
I like to give people warnings that when you are out looking for a new digital piano, please don’t be swayed just by the looks, design, and the “bells & whistles” of the piano you are considering. Those things can be good to have, but you should purchase a piano mainly to get the best piano playing experience in your price range.
If you have to pay a few extra dollars to make that happen, then I recommend you do that because it will allow you to grow into the piano instead of grow out of it!
