Product Review: Thomann DP-51 – Affordable Digital Piano

The Thomann DP-51 is a classic home piano. Given the price/performance ratio, it can be classified as an affordable digital piano for beginners. However, its features would let you suspect a much higher price tag. A hammer action keyboard with Ivory feel and a large case with a high-gloss finish for considerably less than 1000 Euros – is that any good?

Like other digital pianos in the budget class, Thomann outsources the DP-51’s manufacturing to Asia. This allows for extremely attractive prices to be offered to the customer. If you choose the matte black case, you can save even more money. The high-gloss version – available in black, by the way – is of course a real eye-catcher. A comprehensively equipped chassis, music holder, keyboard cover, 3-way pedal unit, powerful speaker system – who wouldn’t like to put such a neat digital piano into their living room?

Thomann DP-51: with Ivory Feel Keyboard

The weighted 88-note hammer action keyboard plays quite comfortably, which is not least due to the ivory-feel surface of the white keys. This brings us to the first extra of the Thomann DP-51, because an ivory-feel keyboard on a digital piano of this size is only available in a significantly higher price range.

The feel of the keyboard is naturally not the same as on a 2000 euro digital piano, but you still can play well with it. The keys feel grippy, and the hammer action allows good velocity control. At the same time, the keyboard works smoothly, which suits digital piano beginners. And not to forget: The keybed is also equipped with let-off mechanics and a tri-sensor system.

Focus on piano sound

The Thomann DP-51 has a 128 voices polyphonic sound generation, which is appropriate for the stereo sampled piano sound. Pay special attention to this sound, as the rest of the in total 40 sounds are of somewhat lower quality. The acoustic piano sound really stands out in terms of quality.

The Thomann DP-51 produces a brilliant piano sound, which is also cleanly implemented in the touch dynamics. Only rarely will you notice dynamic jumps, which are by no means disruptive. The DP-51 does not quite master modern sound details such as sympathetic resonance or key-off effect – given the low price that is no surprise. However, above all the tonal range in general sounds balanced and authentic – which is more than sufficient for a digital piano for beginners.

Played over headphones, the sound creates a pretty wide image, which reverb effects further support. But the piano sound of the Thomann DP-51 is also pleasing when you play it over the built-in speaker system. With 2 x 15 watts, the piano has enough reserves to produce a full and clean sound at moderate volume.

Playing piano with the DP-51

Digital sound generators always deal with a wide range of possibilities for playing the sounds. The Thomann DP-51 offers quite a lot of them – you can almost get confused. But everything in order:

• DUAL: With this function you can play two sounds at the same time, which lay equally on top of each other – very nice to create sound combinations with the available 40 sounds themselves, such as piano plus electric piano or church organ plus strings. The additional sounds do their job quite well.
• SPLIT: You won’t find this function on the control panel spontaneously – but it exists! You press the button LOWER, and – simsalabim – the keyboard splits into two sections. Now you can play two different sounds at the same time – e.g. a bass guitar sound on the left, the piano sound on the right.
• TWINOVA: This is also a split function, but in a slightly modified form. The little word “Twin” suggests it – here the selected sound is split into two equally transposed ranges. Handy for four-handed playing in piano lessons.
• DUET: Here, too, the basis is a split function. Depending on the chords you play on the left, the DUET function generates matching interval tones to the melody played with the right hand. Very clever. Not only does it sound nice and full, but it also helps beginners develop a musical ear for polyphonic playing.

Sequencer, recorder, metronome

For practicing and playing along, the device stores 60 songs, which using the sequencer you can play back at any tempo. It is also possible to record your own music pieces via the RECORD function, for example for self control. A metronome function is of course also available.

Arranger function – automatic accompaniment

Practicing the piano with a metronome is boring? No problem – because the Thomann DP-51 is a digital piano with arranger function. The integrated automatic accompaniment is controlled by the chords you play on the keyboard. Here, too, the DP-51 works in SPLIT mode: The chords to control the arranger-generated accompaniment play in the left area of the keyboard.

In principle, the whole thing works like a portable keyboard. It is too bad that there is no PIANIST function for controlling the accompaniment, which would determine chords from the entire keyboard range. That would fit much better to a digital piano like the Thomann DP-51.

Conclusion: High gloss and Ivory Feel for little money

All in all – well done! What you get from the Thomann DP-51 at a budget price is worth seeing and hearing. Compared to more expensive, but similar equipped digital pianos from brand manufacturers, there are a few compromises to be made. But the bottom line is that the quality is right in terms of the criteria important for a good home piano: A pleasant playing feel thanks to the tri-sensor hammer action keyboard with Ivory Feel surface as well as a nice piano sound.

If you put the emphasis on keyboard and piano sound and also value classic home piano design, you should take a close look at the Thomann DP-51. A comprehensively equipped high-gloss polished case for the price – that is absolutely top!

Digital piano for beginners: Thomann DP-51 in video test

In this price range, you otherwise get significantly smaller digital pianos. For this reason, we have also included the Thomann DP-51 in our test series “Digital Piano for Beginners”. But design is not everything: We were especially interested in whether the Thomann DP-51 can also hold its own in terms of playing and sound characteristics.

Thomann DP-51 – Overview

Available since: 08.2017
Keyboard: 88 weighted hammer action Ivory Feel keys
Polyphony: 128 voices
Special features: Multiple keyboard modes (layer, split…), arranger function
Manufacturer/Distributor: Thomann