Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards My comparison: CLP 585 vs Roland LX7 / LX17 vs Kawai CS11

One should have a humble onion with everything, it is good for the humors!

I do like the Vienna Imperial, quite expensive lol.. Wonder how they compare with the Roland's modelled sound. I was going to buy a second hand VPC1 (for £650), but in the end, wanted to gig, so went with the MP7. Will definitely try out Ivory II at some point.

Hello,

I’ve recently joined this forum and I’d like to post my personal observations on some digital pianos.
I’m using this thread because I’ve bought the Yamaha CLP-585. In my decision the comments on this forum were essential and special thanks to ShoeiHat for the well written opinions.
Please note I am a piano beginner with no knowledge/technique to test the capabilities of these pianos.

Cabinet:
The Yamaha Clavinova series and the Kawai CA-67 (no CA-97 in the only store selling Kawai in my region) look very nice. Polished ebony looks gorgeous, but adds to the price and gathers fingerprints.
Rolland looks also nice, but I preferred the control panel on the left, not in front, as it looks like a keyboard, even with the slide cover (you can still see the lights a bit) – not a deal breaker though.
I liked the idea that Samick Neo had to use a lid cover for the control panel.

Action:
Initially I started looking at CLP-535, but the keys were stiff and keyboard-like and by reading the specs I thought that CLP-545 wooden keys are just marketing; however its keys were much easier to play compared to CLP-535, even if they share the same key mechanism.
With Rolland I was distracted by the sounds of the keys.

Sound:
From the 2 main piano voices offered by Clavinova, I like more the Bosendorfer and thanks to this forum for the tips on how to enhance it to not sound as dull as with the default settings. The CFX Grand sounds a bit digital to me and even the CA-67 a tiny bit digital, but if I have to choose it would be the Kawai.
Over the headphones, the HP-603/HP-605 was strange, like the sound was coming from far away.

Price:
Maybe because there are less number of stores here in Canada, selling Kawai and Rolland, the digital pianos from these 2 manufactures are more expensive than Yamaha, compared what I see in US or Europe. For example CA-67 and HP-605 are more expensive than CLP-575 and CA-97 is more expensive than 585. LX7 & LX17 were excluded because they were above my budget.

Piano2138, thank you for sharing your thoughts, and congrats on your new piano!

Am I correct in thinking that the Kawai CS8/CS11 were not available in the dealer's store?

Kind regards,
James
x

I`m always surptised that the same action can sound and feel so different on different models. Down to the velocity curve, amongst other things. All carefully worked out in the factory offices . . . !

We need to hear this beast played. . . .

Thank you Kawai James.
There were no CS8/CS11 on the floor, but I imagine it would be possible to order it, like it was proposed to me for CA-97. However these 2 models (and surprisingly also CA-97, more expensive than CLP-585) were above my budget. Judging from the large number of uprights and grand pianos (mostly Kawai), the dealer was focusing on acoustic pianos.

I think you will be very happy with the CLP 585! If it would not have been so expensive, I would have gladly bought it myself. But now I went with the Kawai as I did not like the lower priced CLP´s. Soundwise I enjoyed the new Kawai samples more.

Okay, thank you Piano2138.