The 8 is very responsive to me. Acoustic pianos are very responsive as well - they vary. Yamaha uprights seem to be very light on the touch. For Montage, I don't "feel" the hammer and all that. Like I think the S80 had more hammer feedback. I think the Montage 8 deviates just a tad from being an "I can't tell it's not a piano" when turning off the speakers and just feeling the keys. It's a has just a tad more response to cover the organ and synth bases without sacrificing, for me, in the "this feels like a GREAT weighted feel" department. We all, however, come from different places when it comes to this. I've made more comparisons of the Montage 8 keybed to other keyboards (Kurzweil, Nord, Korg, other Yamahas, Roland) and have a strong opinion of how it ranks vs. those. But you're not asking about that - acoustic pianos.

Can't give you the downweight measurement. Maybe someone can or dig up what the spec is.

I think the answer is going to end up being - on the light side of the spectrum.

One of the major things that sold me on the Montage-8, (akin to the way everyone who I saw playing it, including myself, sounded like they were in a church (not acoustically, but spiritually!);) ) was the incredible connection between the keyboard response and the way the piano sound (the various ones) spoke felt and sounded. Jason's response is spot on - maybe a hair on the magical side, if not 101% totally pianistic; but close enuff, and yes, it's a good match between the way it *does* play (respond), and the sound that is produced when you have a piano selected. I feel like I can make it do things that a piano would do, and only a slight bit of extra 'thunk' may be preferable.

I've suggested before some "thunk" be dialed into the noises. Like pedal noises you can turn up or squelch out, hammer slap back, some more wood key mechanics, etc. I'm fond of the upright sound (acoustic piano, not so much the Montage rendition) because the mechanical bits are all "right in your face". Sometimes with an EP I can get fooled when I hear the "thunk" vs. feeling it. It associates the moment of thunkness to the present and somehow I transcend the lack of actual thunkiness. (i.e. tactile feedback)

Various slightly different spellings of root "thunk" are intentional.

EP is referenced because there's a lot of focus on the noisy bits of an EP this gen - and the other non "E" "P"s could be served by the same level of treatment. I'm not saying it isn't there - just a matter of degrees.

Leaving aside the sounds that replicate the ones of a real piano or EP (I can live without them), what really matters to me is the weight of the keys: I can't really stand light touch keybeds and unfortunately if I don't play on an keybed similar to an average keybed of a piano (about 50g of downweight) my left hand's little and ring fingers will give me problems due to an injury of the my ulnar nerve.

I know that the new Roland RD-2000 has about 65g of downweight (that's good for my case), so I would like to know the downweight also of the Montage 8, to decide if buying it or instead going in the next two years for the combo Roland RD-2000 + Montege 6 .