Through headphones?

I played them all yesterday and I swear the 685 sounded more convincing and clear. Am I imagining things?

//iLogic

Well obviously, it has much better speaker system. So yeah they are gonna be different because speaker system is different, even if sound engine is the same.

But does this affect the sound through headphones as well? (Excuse my ignorance regarding speaker systems)

No it shouldn't, does it? It depends on amplification system but I'm not sure if there are different systems on those pianos.

Have you done factory reset before playing each piano?

No it was just the store default setting so I don’t know if anyone had fiddled with it..

These are three different pianos. They sound different because they are different. It's not just the speakers.

Afaik, there is no difference in headphone amplification, so all should sound the same.

I take it you weren't able to figure out the issue with your CA98?

There's got to be a big difference. The speaker and cabinet system wouldn't justify the price alone. Having said that, I've never been impressed by any of 'em . . . .

There is no further headphone amp information in the technical specs. I can't verify that but after hours of testing all CLPs, i didn't had noticed any differences between them when played with headphones.

It's also not only the cabinet and speaker system. Also key action, counter weights, pedal mechanism and additional voices.

I tweaked the sound a bit to make it less noticeable, however I much preferred the sound of the binaural CFX which is why I’m switching to Yamaha. 685 might be overkill though, but the action of the 675 feels weird and the action of the 645 is a bit to light for my liking. But if they are supposed to be exactly the same through headphones, I might have to reconsider buying the 685 since it’s twice the price of the 645...

On another note, is it a bad idea to buy the 600-series now? Looking back, Yamaha seems to release new models every 3 years, 2014,2017, 2020? Perhaps is it better to wait? I want a piano though...

You want to change the piano, change it. There is no telling when they gonna release next series. You can always sell current piano, you will lose some money of course but I think CLP 685 is worth it. If not for heavy action I would've bought it long time ago.

It's obviously a matter of personal taste, but for me the CLP-645 has the best action of the 6xx range. I find the 675 and 685 to be both too heavy and too noisy.

Compared to the previous 5xx series, there wasn't so much difference in there to justify a replacement. VRM, Bluetooth and other goodies got introduced in the lower tiers but the changes in sound and key action was rather subtle. So i would give it a shot. The CLP series has also a good resell value.