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when does this piano arrive in UK stores, since they stated it would be february originally, thats clearly not happened.

Is it significantly (mildly in reality no doubt) better than the hp307 its replacing does anyone know?

Many thanks

I was in my local music store yesterday. They had a HP503 and 505 on display. I enquired about the 507 and they said they could get one within 10 days.

It has some interesting new features but, in my opinion, none significant or indispensable (although they are nice). For instance:

- Progressive Damper pedal, simulating the grand pedal effect which makes it harder as you press deeper (this already existed for LX-10 and the grand like models RG-1 and 3).
- New historical pianofortes samples
- Ability to record directly to audio.

AFAIK, the rest of features are identical to 307 (same PHA III Ivory feel with scapement keyboard, Piano Designer, same SuperNatural sound, etc).

I already tried the 503 (505 and 507 didn't arrive yet the day I took a walk into the store I usually buy things) and I really liked the pianofortes but otherwise I couldn't find a huge difference with its predecessor, the HP-302.

I tried the 507 in pmt Birmingham last week. It's got a much improved speaker system over the 307 is the first thing you will notice . At the moment I have the 207 which is the home piano before the 307. The bass on the 507 is really to much for the mid range,maybe a bit of tweaking will sort that out though .
I tried the rd 700nx through a pair of Roland's ds7 monitors which to me was better sounding than the home pianos. So I bit the bullet and part exchanged my Hp207 for a 700nx.

ok thats great, how does the tone/sound of the piano differ in the newer 507 to the 207/307? the 307 had a booming bass too so the 507 is probably just the same.

What I dont understand is the drop in price to the 307, in UK its £2399 for the 507 and £2500+ for the 307, to me that means the 507 is not as good in some way, I wonder also if the piano comes with a bench, as the 307 never did.

The boomy sound you experience is the difference that I found between the flagship Roland home pianos and the rd700nx ,which is the reason I am choosing the Rd over the Hp . I would advise you to try the tone of the 700nx and the hp507 using headphones .To me the tone is much better in the 700nx.

I also tried the Yamaha clavinovas which I thought sounded not as good as Roland's tones. The clp 400 series which I was testing only sounded nice with more reverb turned up .The dry sound was not a patch on Rolands dry sound.

interesting, but if I bought the 700nx, is there a new model due out soon, since that has been out a few years now.

Also I agree with you, it does seem to sound better than the 507 or other HP pianos in general. But I always have this concern about speakers and what will make the piano sound best, what types of speakers do I need and which make/model, and I wouldnt want to spend too much on the speakers as I realise there are nmo built in speakers, but speakers are what make the piano...

Many thanks

Mark

I've recently tried and purchased a Hp-507 at a dealer here in the Boston area last week. I currently have a Yamaha Clavinova Clp-130, which is about 8 years old. The 507 was defined a bit more "boomy" as someone mentioned above. If we assume middle C as C4, then it had the heaviest bass (or boomy) sound response from C2 to C3. That sound discouraged me at first, since the Clavinova has a much lighter low end and I've been playing that for years, but then I turned around and played the $60,000 Steinway grand behind me, and it's equally as "boomy" in all the same places. A grand piano is a powerful instrument, field with nuance and character. To my ears (and that's always the key, right?) Roland did an excellent job of capturing that experience.

I played for about an hour, and the longer I played the less noticeable the stronger low end was. More likely, I just got used to it. I left for lunch and then came back an hour later to play some more and I didn't notice the heavier bass sound as much. Like I said, I had gotten used to it.

Also, I played both a 307 and a 507 and (again to my ears) the sound is fuller on the 507, however the "acoustic projection" system is definitely intended to be heard from the players point of view. Standing up in front of either, I liked the 307 sound a bit better, but seated, it was no contest.

One final note, to add to the new or different features CarloPiano listed, the 507 also adds "Sound Board Behavior" to the list of Piano Designer features. Additionally, the touch settings are now a fully adjustable scale from 1-100, as opposed to the 307's "Super light, light, medium, heavy, super heavy. " This was a very welcome addition for me, as I found my preference somewhere in between light and super light.

In regards to the lower pricing, I'd offer up a few possible thoughts:
--- 1) as mentioned earlier, a lot of the technology is still the same from the 3xx line. So it's possible manufacturing efficiency has led to the lower price: 2 years ago the 307 needed 3 circuit boards for the sample software, now it's only 1, and so on.
--- 2)The PHA-III Keyboards were brand new to the 307, so R&D costs could have been factored in.
--- 3) The LCD screen is smaller on the 507, than the 307. But they have updated the menus to fit well on the slightly smaller screen.

I'd say the only thing I would have liked to have seen would be onboard EQ -- like Roland has in their stage pianos. There is some messing around to be done with the Piano Designer feature, but no direct EQ (low,mid,high, or frequency adjustment). But the salesman mentioned that one possibility might be they didn't want you mucking with their "Acoustic projection system." I also supposed they need to leave something to add to the next model's list of "new features."

Oh...it was sold with a bench. And a very nice padded one; classic flip open for storage and all! One last note, the piano actually back-ordered. Apparently, Roland hasn't manufactured enough, just yet. They're expecting it in a couple or 3 weeks.

Cheers,
Chris

wow, fantastic response to my concerns Chris, much appreciated beleive me, I think you covered everything I needed to know

Just one other thing, did you notice the same natural reverb/resononace the 307 has on the 507? I used to own the 307 and you wouldnt need to adjust the reverb or settings to a higher level as the dry sound was fantastic and really alive so to speak on the 307, hopefully the 507 is the same, but like you say better from the players perspective, but this is something Yamaha got spot on with their tri-amp speaker set-up I must admit.

thanks Chris

Mark

Mark, you'd gone very cool on the HP-307, hence you got rid of it. Other than a few details the 507 is essentially the same thing so proceed with caution!

yeah but I think I made a mistake, thanks for your advice though, the issue I am having with my current yamaha cllp470 is the speaker system is poor and I dont get on with it at all, it took me a while to realise how poor the speakers are, they cant cope with louder sounds at all and distort under pressure and not even at full volume, its really annoying, at least with the roland the speaker set up is very good and sound wise better than the yamaha in speaker quality...which is almost everything that makes the piano sound good.

Maybe you should have kept the CLP-380!

tell me about it

I feel your pain, I really do. It's a mistake I keep making too.

yeah and its like... I cant afford the 480!

Yes, the top CLP is always serious money - but that sound system is one of the very few on any DP that really is good. The price jump from 470 to 480 is massive unfortunately.

How about swapping the CLP-470 for a second-hand CLP-380?

Cheers,
James
x

There's an idea!

maybe, I was also thinking about the 700nx Roland do which sounds even better than the hp507 but obviously god knows how to make it sound good and what speakers to use with it.

Yes, the RD is a very good thing, but as you say it could involve some lengthy and possibly expensive experimentation with some near-field monitors or some other speaker solution. Could be very rewarding but if you were going to go down that road, there's loads of other stuff you might consider - Yamaha, Kawai, Nord and Roland stage pianos.

I wonder if there's any dealers out there with a CLP-380 left in stock that they would sell at a much reduced price - might be worth ringing around. Kawai CA-93 has a punchy sound system and is significantly cheaper than the Yamaha CLP-480 and has arguably a better action so that could be another possibility.

Good luck anyway!

Steve