Roland RCP-800, Roland MP-200 – REVIEW | 2023 Digital Pianos

Roland kept the factory warranty the same which is 5 years parts & 2 years labor. Unlike the Roland HP702 which comes in a variety of cabinet colors including rosewood, light oak, white, and charcoal black, the RCP-800 and MP-200 only come in the black color. The letters (RCP) in a Costco digital piano model and MP in a Guitar Center model identify those pianos as being exclusive to those stores and not available under those model numbers at actual Roland piano stores. My best guess on the RCP is that it stands for “Roland Costco Piano,” but I am not quite sure on the MP for Guitar Center model. The actual model numbers of both models are not on the pianos themselves so you cannot know what you are buying when you look at the front of the piano. That’s kind of strange because on all other top name digital pianos that I know the model number can be clearly seen on the front of the piano somewhere. Is Roland trying to hide something? 

Costco and Guitar Center says on their sites that this new RCP-800/MP-200 offers a grand piano playing experience through a powerful internal speaker system. However, this statement (a powerful internal speaker system) really is not true because an actual grand piano playing experience on a real grand piano makes this RCP-800 and MP-200 models look like toys in terms of volume and tonal quality. In other words, to suggest the RCP-800 and MP-200 is like playing a real grand piano in both touch & tone is marketing and hype in our opinion. 

For a digital piano to come closer to a real “grand piano” playing experience you have to be in approximately the $4000-$5000 price range minimum for that to happen and get much longer, all-wooden keys. So don’t get fooled by the Roland-Guitar Center-Costco “hype.” The Roland  HP702 is the mainstream version of this RCP-800 and MP-200 and share the same Roland entry level key action in the piano called the PHA-4 Standard key action which is also in the Roland $749 portable digital piano called the FP-30X and a few other Roland models around or under $1500. 

This lower 28 watts of power and smaller speakers is quite underpowered compared to what you can otherwise find in other good brands in this price range including the popular Korg G1 Air ($1799 internet price with $200 instant rebate). The Korg G1 has a much larger 80 watts of power coming from 4 separate amplifiers going through 4 speakers, 2 of which are enclosed in a separate sealed sound box for extra bass response…and the G1 Air is only $100 more than the Roland RCP-800 and the same price as the MP-200. The Korg G1 Air which is made in Japan also sounds and feels a lot more realistic as compared to a real acoustic piano in our opinion. The new Yamaha CLP-725 ($1999) and Kawai CN201 ($2299) would be other examples for digital pianos you should consider with noticeably better speaker systems inside.

When an internal speaker system is underpowered in a digital piano, the result of that is not necessarily that it won’t be loud enough for your space (it might be loud enough or might not). The real concern is that unless you play the piano at full volume then the quality of the piano sound at normal volumes (30% to 75%) will not be very good. The piano sound will be noticeably artificial and tinny also lacking good bass response. This was my experience when playing this Roland model…is was  noticeably artificial in piano sound and the overall piano sound engine was thin and twangy. If you are a beginner then maybe you won’t notice it. But if you know how to play piano and have experience with pianos then you may not be happy with what you hear.

The Korg G1 Air digital piano, which we like very much, also has Bluetooth wireless audio streaming and a beautiful sounding 80 watt, four channel internal speaker system to carry that sound and it actually sounds like a baby grand piano. The Casio company is another one that also has a popular model digital piano called the AP-470 and that model has 40 watts of power going through 4 speakers and 2 amplifiers and is only $1699 on-line and has many compelling features as well. So when it comes to the very important internal speaker system on these digital pianos under $2000, Roland is definitely on the low end of it all and for the higher price $1999. 

As for the key action, as I mentioned earlier, it is Roland’s PHA-4 Standard entry level key action found in nearly all their digital pianos below the RCP-800 and MP-200 models and down to well under $1000. It is not until you get to the higher priced Roland HP704 in the HP line until you get their preferred and upgraded PHA-50 key action which is noticeably more authentic. The RCP-800 and MP-200 key action does have the synthetic ivory keys along with matte black keys so that is a nice feature and they feel smooth on the fingers…but again, the key action is a bit heavy in our opinion as compared to other good key actions out there, but it’s definitely still playable. The key action is the most important part of any piano whether it’s digital or acoustic so that’s the area in which you want to focus on when shopping for a new digital piano.

For me a real downside of this key action in these 2 Roland pianos (remember, they are the same pianos with different model numbers) is that the keyboard action is noticeably noisy! I was really surprised when I played it but what happens is when you are playing the keys using the piano sound at normal volume, you can hear the keys hit bottom when pressing down the keys and they make a loud “thumping” sound like there is not felt or cushion below the keys…they are just loud. In fact when the master volume is low or you are using headphones, that’s all you hear is the “thump, thump, thump of the keys as they are going back down. The noise does knot occur when the keys are coming back up…it’s only when they are going down and there is not way to stop that. 

The actual piano sound in the RCP-800 and MP-200 is from their physical modeling piano sound chip which uses mathematical algorithms to calculate the piano sound. So instead of doing actual sample recording of a real grand piano, Roland uses this newer technology in its place. However, I am not a big fan of this new technology when used by itself without sampling technology because the physical modeled piano just sounds more artificial that way and more synthetic when playing depending on the piano sound your are using, the notes you are playing, and the sustain you are applying with your damper-sustain pedal. The piano sound is 256-note polyphony which is plenty of power to play any type of music,

Like the Roland HP702 in Roland piano stores, the RCP-800 and MP-200 has a bunch of digital features (bells & whistles) that are very cool including over 300 additional instrument sounds (some very good, some average),  some cool recording features to help to create songs and play them back and saving them onto a USB thumb-drive for storage, sound editing functions, Bluetooth audio streaming and wireless Bluetooth MIDI connectivity, and a proprietary app designed by Roland called “Piano Every Day” to let you see sheet music notation on your tablet and play along as well as let you control some of the functions and features of the piano from you color touch screen on your tablet. 

I like a lot of things the HP702/RCP-800/MP-200 can do and depending on what your musical goal is, you may take advantage of some of those features and functions. You can also layer/mix and split any two sounds on the keyboard and save them into user memories for instant recall later on along with having the ability to digitally transpose any music into different keys. change the touch sensitivity setting to make the “key attack” lighter or heavier, use a digital metronome for learning rhythm & timing, and many other things that can be useful. So there is no shortage of fun things to do on these pianos. So that’s definitely an “upside” to these models.

But when it comes to the “piano playing experience” and getting a good natural piano tone and key action along with a very good internal speaker system, this is where the RCP-800 and MP-200 falls somewhat short in my opinion as compared with other new digital pianos in and around this price range. I will say the RCP-800/MP-200 cabinet is very attractive and has nice design features on it with a closing key cover, a good supportive music rack, nicely laid out control panel with easy-to-see panel buttons, and a nice black finish, so they definitely do look good in their more traditional form. 

They also have good connectivity features including Bluetooth wireless (as I already mentioned), USB flash-drive input, USB output to connect with external devices, audio input and outputs, and headphone connections. These 2 models are actually nice pianos (with the noticeable exception of the key action, low powered speaker system, and somewhat artificial piano sound). 

The MP-200 (Guitar Center) and RCP-800 (Costco) look attractive, have a useful and fairly intuitive control panel with easy to use buttons, have a built in sliding key cover, a useful music rack with sheet music holders, and a matching bench which is handy to have.  But as far as a realistic piano playing experience goes without a noisy key action, for $1999 plus tax, in our opinion we think you can do better with a few other models for the same price or less money, especially if you want to keep it under $2000. If you want more info on the mainstream version Roland HP702, then please read my review of that model. Roland HP702/704 Review. Again you should definitely consider the other digital piano choices out there. Just because you see a digital piano at Costco or Guitar center does not necessarily make it the best choice in its price range…and in our opinion that is certainly the case here.

Finally, if you want a nice looking cabinet and an impressive piano playing experience, then take a look at the new Kawai CN201 digital piano. It’s functions and features are squarely focused on the piano playing experience and this model definitely does deliver in that way. Plus, it has a few “bells & whistles” that we think are very useful such as Bluetooth MIDI and Bluetooth audio wireless streaming along with stereo “positioning” when you use any pair of stereo headphones for private practice. Check out my review on this new Kawai model and see what it’s all about: Kawai CN201 Review