Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Is Yamahas CP300 still up to date? Any good alternatives?

Hey Guys!

I am going to buy a new digital piano because I am not satisfied with my current P45. One piano I am considering to buy is the CP300.

1. Is the sound still enjoyable to listen to/play or is it completely outdated? Can it compete with digital pianos about the price of the CP300? I mostly play classical music, especially from the romantic era.

2. Is the CP300 too expensive and are there alternatives which are obviously much better? The highest price I am considering to pay is like ~2500€.

3. Where does the sound of pianos like the CP4 come from? If I bought it, would I need to buy speakers to hear the sound? I can't see any speakers on the pictures.

I am not playing on any gigs or something, I just want a high quality digital piano that most of the time will be in my room. Big thanks if you can answer some of the questions!
(Sorry if my english isn't the best haha)

I owned the CP300 and it served me well. It is a monster though.

If you're going to spend €2500 you can certainly buy the Roland RD 2000. (I paid €2350.)

The CP4 has a very good recommendation from a few folks here (though I think the placement of the headphone jack is really stupid).

For €2500 you can buy the top of the line stage piano from any manufacturer. I'd go to a large store and bring a professional set of headphones.

Thanks for your answer. The Roland piano seems very good to me, sounds great. I will for sure go to a music store and check it out! I have one question tho: To hear the sound, do I need to use headphones or external speakers? Are there some kind of internal speakers in that piano, and are they decent?

The FP-90 is even cheaper than the RD-2000, and it has the same action and physical modeling. It also has on-board speakers.

If it's mostly for piano playing the FP-90 is great. If you need more sounds, functionality, and tweakability than the RD 2000.

The CP-300 is good, but way too old, and therefore over-priced. It's been around for almost a decade, and still Yamaha neither discontinues nor upgrades it. I have no idea what they're thinking with this very capable, yet also very old board.

You could upgrade the CP-300's sound by running something like Pianoteq through its on-board speakers, but you can't upgrade the two-sensor, plastic action. The FP-90 uses wooden sides on the white keys. This makes the keys feel more substantial and less plastiky. Furthermore, the action is finely tuned to the physically modeled sound engine

The CP300 does not have top tier sound and action for the price anymore, not even by Yamaha's own standards. The board has its fans, though, I think mostly because of its powered speaker system, which gives it about the closest thing you can find to a self-contained real piano experience in a board that is still somewhat portable. I guess the new Roland FP90 (which I haven't heard) might be a competitor in that regard. Yamaha themselves would probably say that their CP4 has better piano sound and action than the CP300, for less money, if you don't need a built-in speaker system. As you surmised from the photo, not only does it not have the particularly powerful sound system of the CP300, it doesn't have anything at all.

If you want to stick with something with speakers, besides Roland, the Kawai ES8 is another nice possibility, if you don't need as much out of the internal speakers as the CP300 gives you. If you're willing to consider models without built in speakers, Kawai's best would be the MP11, up in the same "barely portable" weight range as the CP300. Another model that has its fans is the Nord Piano 3, which is unique in having a library of different piano sounds you can download into it.

If you audition _all_ the pianos with the same set of professional headphones, you'll do a better job of comparing one piano against the other.

Even if the piano has built in speakers, use the headphones.

I own an N3 and a RD 2000 and I only use headphones at home.

IIRC, they actually discontinued it at one point, but there was apparently still enough demand for it from their dealers that they put it back into production. (While raising the price from $2k to $2500, I believe.) I have a feeling Yamaha isn't sure why people are still buying it, either. But I guess there was enough demand that it made sense for them to keep making it, but not so much demand that they think its worth the effort/expense of updating it. A 70+ lb self-contained "portable" seems like a niche market... but if the CP300 fits the bill for what someone wants, there's not much competition.

I preferred the action of the CP300 over that of the CP5. The CP300 had a heavier action which I personally liked.

Yeah, there's always some subjectivity to the action question. But if someone wants newer sounds and the same kind of action as the CP300 (GH), I believe you get that with the CP40 (no speakers) and the P255 (speakers, but not as powerful as what's in the CP300).

No top-of-the-line stage models have internal speakers. (Roland RD-2000, Nord Piano 3, Kawai MP11, Yamaha CP4) They all require good headphones or speakers (monitors). Monitors cost much more than headphones for the same sound quality.

Just fell in love with the Roland LX-7 today. That one good some speakers, 2x25W, 2x 7W, that's good, right?

That's more than the €2500 price you initially mentioned.

What a lot of folks here do is look at specifications. The list of the speakers and the amplification say nothing to me, I just go by how it sounds.

LX-7 speaker system is "acoustic projection" and has 6 speakers as follows:

Cabinet Speakers: 25 cm (9-7/8 inches) x 2 (with Speaker Box)
Near-field Speakers: 5 cm (2 inches) x 2
Spatial Speakers: (12 cm (4-3/4 inches) x 8 cm (3-3/16 inches)) x 2 (with Speaker Box)

The Roland LX-7 BW is exactly 2.499€ on Thomann.de (One of the biggest german music stores).

Products to check out (top to bottom-->high to low price.

Roland:
**V-piano (stage, old) ---PHAIII action
**RD2000 (stage)---PHA50 action
**RD800 (stage)---PHAIV pro action
**FP90 (portable)---PHA50 action

Kawai
**MP11 (stage)---Grand Feel 1 action
**MP10 (stage, old)---RM3 Grand action
**MP7 (stage)---RHII action
**ES8 (stage)---RHIII action
**VPC1 (piano controller)---RM-3 Grand II action

Yamaha
**CP1 (stage)---NW‑STAGE' hammer‑action
**Montage 8 (synth)---Balanced Hammer Action
**CP4 (stage)---Natural Wood Graded Hammer (NW-GH)
**CP5 (stage)---NW‑STAGE' hammer‑action
**CP40 (stage)---GH keyboard
**P255 (portable)---GH keyboard
**CP300 (portable, old)---GH keyboard

Casio
**PX-560 (stage)---3 Sensors Tri-sensor Scaled Hammer Action Keyboard II 3 sensitivity levels, offSimulated ebony and ivory keys
**PX-5S (synth)---Tri-sensor Scaled Hammer Action II
**PX-360 (stage)---3 Sensors Tri-sensor Scaled Hammer Action Keyboard II 3 sensitivity levels, offSimulated ebony and ivory keys

Nord (Heavily modified Fatar actions)
**Nord Piano 3 (stage)---‘Triple Sensor key bed with improved grand weighted action’ and features Nord’s Virtual Hammer Action Technology
**Nord Piano 2 (stage)--- fully weighted Hammer Action keybed
**Nord Stage 3 (stage)---fully weighted Hammer Action keybed
**Nord Stage 2 EX (stage, old)---fully weighted Hammer Action Keybed

Kurzweil (Fatar actions)
**Forte (stage)---Fatar TP/40L
**Forte SE (stage, light)---Fatar TP/100LR
**Artis (stage)---Fatar TP/100LR
**Artis SE (stage, light)---Fatar TP/100LR

Physis (Custom Fatar)
**H1 (stage)---TP40 Wood, but it is actually a wooden version of TP400.
**K4 (stage, midi controller)---TP40W Wood, Ivory finish , Graded, 3 sensor

Korg
**Kronos 2 (workstation)---RH3 (Real Weighted Hammer Action 3)
**SV-1 (vintage stage)---RH3 (Real Weighted Hammer Action 3)
**Kross (workstation)---NH (Natural Weighted Hammer Action) keyboard

I now see that there are many flavors of the LX 7.

https://www.thomann.de/gb/search_dir.html?bf=&sw=Roland+LX+7

The RD2000 and FP-90 have more functionality. The new generation Roland pianos (RD2000, FP-90, LX7/17 etc) will sound very similar via headphones.
Arguably the disappointing thing about the LX-7 is how much better the LX17 sounds: it has a much better speaker/amp system.
Perhaps you should avoid playing the LX17 lol...

This is a really good list. Many of us are hoping to see the Korg Grandstage arrive to market this year or early next. Having the Kronos sound engines trickle down to a more accessibility priced stage piano format would be a nice addition - although Korg hasn't to my knowledge been working on an upgrade to the RH3 which is only just ok when compared to some others on this list, particularly for playing acoustic piano. It's not the worst, there's just better (although I dig playing Rhodes on the SV1).

Regarding the Nord actions - I don't know why people go on about these Fatar actions being modified, or even "heavily modified". Nord has never suggested in any literature that I am aware of that mentions modification of the Fatar TP-100, TP-40, or TP8Os that they order. One would think modification would be a selling point. Now they might keep what exactly they alter or replace or lubricate with space age polymers under wraps. Or they just might stay quiet that they use stock actions from Fatar and let the internet promote hearsay and secret sauce rumors. Now what we have seen is video from inside the Nord factory where they extensively test and calibrate each action to their specifications for their sample sets and sound engines. But so do others, like Kurzweil who are clear in their literature about exactly which Fatar actions they use - unlike Nord with their HA and HP designations. At least with the NP3 we know they are using a variant of the TP-40 with triple sensor which is being used in other new products like the Studio Logic SL88 Grand. We also know that Nord passed on using Fatar's synthetic ivory for some reason (maybe inconsistencies in manufacturing or holding up to their testing process?). Either way, I've read at least 3 reviews from seemingly reputable reviewers in the last few weeks that give the NP3's action with their "virtual hammer technology" - whatever that means (custom velocity curve for their sample sets?) a thumbs up. I'm eager to play one - can't find one on a shop floor in stress free driving distance - aka I might need to go to Sam Ash on W34th street.

I agree, no evidence that Nord "heavily modifies" the Fatar actions. Though they do seem to use stiffer springs on their semi-weighted boards, as the Nords offer more resistance than other boards that use the TP-8O action.

Here too, I can't tell if Nord swaps the springs for tighter ones or what... but that tightness alone when test driving has been why I've passed on the convenience of an Electro at least twice in the last few years. I can't get on with that tight action - definitely not when trying to occasionally bring one board and using the Electro for EPs and pianos, not just organs. Which as you know, is why I am currently using a VR-700 despite no separate out(s) for the organ engine (the most common complaint). It just has a fantastic feel to it when playing and the drawbars feel great too (particularly when compared to the VR-09). I figure, if I go Mainstage or a Gemini desktop/rack at some point, I'll already have a great playing keyboard - which is getting harder and harder to find.