I’ve also been very happy with Sweetwater. They seem to know their products.
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Happy owner of Kawai VPC-1 which I got two days ago which have a great wooden action. There is option to change default Kawai F-30 pedal to Kawai GFP-3 with Audiofront Midi Expression. There is also Kawai MP-11 SE or Kawai MP-11.
The kawai’s are AMAZING. I got to test out the MP 11 SE at Sweetwater and after having played it, it’s the only keyboard that I would even consider buying at this point. It has long wooden keys and honestly, it feels better than half of the models in the Piano showroom (as opposed to the stage piano / keyboard area). There is nothing that can even hold a candle to it. I put my hands on about 40 keyboards when I went to Sweetwater, And even other expensive stage pianos cannot come even close to the way that that one feels if you are a discerning and highly trained pianist.
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Yep, if you’re a pianist and you want something close to a real piano action, this is a certainly hard to beat. I’ve had one for several years and love it. There’s no bells or whistles though…no mod wheel or pitch bend wheel - just a great, weighted full size keyboard.
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Just to clarify, I’m talking about the Kawai VPC-1.
The Casio Privia PX-S1100 weighted keyboard has been mentioned above I think, but one of its nice features is that it is only 4 inches high. This makes it ideal for an under-the-desk rollout keyboard that won’t hit your knees. Here is a desk (partly inspired by @FredGUnn) that I built this spring with my father.
No pitch bend or mod wheel, but the action is very good and it’s not too expensive (listed $600); it also has bluetooth midi. Great keyboard, I’ve been really happy with it, and for inputting music it is such a relief not to have to worry all the time about which octave you’re in.
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Taylor-made — nice!
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Curious about the Kawai VPC-1. It’s called a piano controller or master keyboard. Does that mean that it doesn’t have an amplifier or speakers? Am I correct in assuming that the MP 11 SE does have amplifier and speakers? Here in Holland it’s about twice as expensive as the VPC-1.
Awesome! All solid cherry? Did you have a lot of woodworking experience already? Did you own all the tools, or use it as an excuse to get some new stuff too? 
Are the stretchers mortise and tenon, or did you Domino them together? Original design or did you modify an existing plan? Looks great, congrats!
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@Vaughan_Schlepp, you are correct:
Thanks - definitely not as fancy as yours but it’s working out great! My dad is a retired shop teacher with tons of tools in his garage, so that’s where we built it, solid cherry. Mortise and tenon, glued together, with biscuit screws to hold the desktop (which is three milled planks glued together). The hardest part for me was the jigsaw cut for the curved cutout in front - a white-knuckle moment for sure. And then figuring out the pull-out shelf was hard to wrap our heads around - your photos really helped.
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Correct. It requires external audio. But it is a fully-fledged stage piano with in-built sounds (which are excellent). It really is designed for discerning pianists, rather than performers who want tons of bells and whistles.
VPC1 is essentially the same unit, minus all the extra electronics. You’re paying for a “real” piano action (as close as you’re going to get), with full-length wooden keys.
For many years I use the Kawai VPC-1 , just a controller, nothing more, but it works great.
I went on a weighted 88-key digital piano voyage last year, trying out dozens of brands. It’s such an expensive and physically large decision so I really took my time and made a chart comparing the pro’s and con’s of each.
I would say all the brands had good options for sure. One thing I observed after visiting numerous music stores is that the Roland keybeds seemed the most consistent across their price ranges. The more expensive did get nicer, but even their budget-level keyboards and hammer-style action I noticed to be among the best, compared to other budget-level keyboards.
For this reason and others, I ended up going with Roland because their version of hammer-action reminded me most of a real piano, but also it ticked other boxes of sound quality, timbral & feel modification options, built-in metronome that is easy to adjust on the fly, compact size options, and overall design aesthetic - their keyboards look nice and feel high quality even at their lowest end. Roland’s digital pianos and their action also gets generally consistently positive reviews, so it’s “tried and true.” I wouldn’t actually say Roland was the winner of any one category, but for me it was the best because it ticked all those categories in the ways I needed, so that’s important to consider: which option gives you the best value all around?
But it’s all very personal and not something easy to just exchange out if you don’t like the one you get. If at all possible I think it would be worth the journey to any store which stocks various models. But if I were to do it again without the ability to try in-store, I would say Roland makes great keyboards and I’ve been very happy. Their current sound engines are really fantastic, too, if you like to use it without a computer sometimes.
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I’ll add my name to the chorus of folks who are recommending the Kawai VP-1. It’s basically the action of a Kawai concert hall grand piano. My only complaint is the top is curved rather than flat - so papers slide off if you’re playing hard.
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@eheilner Without wanting to be peevish, it’s not like a Kawai concert grand action. That’s the Millenium 3 carbon fibre action which is not only too big for a desktop instrument but would also cost you tens and tens of thousands of dollars.
Here’s the action in a photograph:
[From https://kawai.com.au/product/vpc1/]
I will say that if has let-off simulation, which is great, and does make it feel like a proper grand piano, which makes a real difference of you are a piano player because it is designed for rapid repetition.
So think what you may have been referring to is the great let-off feature, not often found on desktops or console digital pianos.
Sorry to be such a dreadful pedant! 
I thought this is however worth mentioning this topic searching for good weighted actions.
Here’s the Millemium 3 action:
None of this is to denigrate to VPC-1 - nice instrument.
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I use Nord Piano 5 (88).
As one pedant to another thanks for the correction. In my defense - not being a concert pianist, I can’t tell the difference between the VPC-1 and a high quality acoustic grand - it plays beautifully.
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I ended up purchasing a Roland FP90X digital piano keyboard. I have been learning classical guitar and wanted to learn piano (88 keys) to improve my music theory and enter notation into Dorico via MIDI. My decision was based upon my limited understanding of key action and touch, and importantly the sound. I preferred the Roland over the similarly priced Yamaha.
Hello,
Is there some pianists (classical) to tell about sensation of this one to play with vst like Ivory or vsl synchron :
Doepfer LMK2+