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My friend and I set up his clp785. We compare a lot with a yamaha U3 that he owns. I changed my opinion about the clp785 key action a little, it is not perfect but it is on the right way. But I need to make an analogy:

Imagine you hitting a baseball bat on the grass, this is the acoustic piano.

Now imagine you hitting that baseball bat on the stone, this is clp 785.

There is no softness, this is a very serious problem for me.

But the balance is not marketing. It works well and adds a more realistic balance on the keys. In fact the best action in the 700 series is the clp785.

Hi. Practical question for CLP-7xx owners out there (or newer yamahas in general). LATENCY-WISE how usable is the internal audio interface for VSTs routed through the piano speakers and headphone jack? I am not asking about quality or features or mixes, but only about latency... Not significantly slower than external interfaces?

But the balance ... But the counterweights...

Hi, i have zero latencyproblems with CLP785's soundcard connected to a Mac mini M1.
I sold my external USB audio interface yesterday. (Audient ID14)

Thanks ivercaut. I had that impression from random comments, but it is good to have a confirmation.

Yes, the built-in audio interface in the Yamahas does the job. It also comes in handy for recording quality video/audio simultaneously into an iPhone/iPad, etc.

No need to record line-out audio separately and then have to deal with syncing it with the video later.

No latency problems playing through the CLP-745 speakers via the USB Audio interface.

If you desire a spongier keybed then try out the Kawai CA99.

Are you saying the GF action is fluffy-spongy-bouncy?

That would be the GFII.

I've had my CLP785 a month now and feel that's enough time to formulate an opinion.

Firstly- this instrument is lovely to play - it makes you want to play and play and play. Many times I've sat down for 'just 10 minutes' and 2 hours later I'm still at it. I disagree with complaints on the key action - I saw very little.difference between the CLP785 and the Yamaha B1 acoustic I played. But anyway I'm not a stickler for acoustics- I prefer the flexibility and also sound quality of high end digitals. Yes, I said sound quality.

So on that point, the piano has a lot of sounds but the 2 main ones are the Yamaha CFX and the Bosendorfer Concert Grand. The CLP785 has an upgraded sound system compared to the rest of the range so there is no point saying you've heard the CFX on the 745 and expect it to be like on the 785. At first I thought the CFX sound was wonderful and the Bosendorfer a bit flat. But that was my fault- they are both suited to different music styles. The CFX has a bright tone, perfect for the ubiquitous Yiruma-style tunes. However playing Beethoven's Piano Sonata no 14 on the Bosendorfer setting was incredible. Just wow. That alone was worth the price of entry.

So to sum up- you need to spend time with the instrument. But you will want to play and play as it sucks you in. I don't want to get drawn into any argument about whether this is better than CA99 or not just that for what I paid for the CLP785 I feel is worth it and I have no regrets. If it had cost 20% more I'd still feel it was worth it. It has changed my piano playing as it makes me want to play and play. And it sounds amazing. When I play I feel the sound quality coming from the CLP785 is better than what I hear on Spotify (obviously those recording artists are better pianists than me but I really feel my piano sounds better).

Je ne regrette rien!

Thanks for the opinion Ryan.

It is nice to hear from actual owner of the instrument. I bought my unit back in December last year and I'm still waiting for Yamaha to actually received 785's in my part of the world. The place were I bought it has actually seen a whole three units last year. It is trickling the distribution channel. I'm sure I'll eventually get it. I'm patiently waiting.

Cheers for the little french touch at the end of your post.
Je ne regretterai rien moi non plus et l'attente sera récompensée :3

What? You don't rely on specs? You judge based on your own senses and preferences?
Bravo!

Yes, schoolboy error. Let's hope it never catches on.

I appreciated Ryan's update. What I found when I had a CLP-645 (slightly less good piano sounds than 700 series) was that the CFX and Bosie were so different that you just have to acclimatise to each before making judgement. If I played CFX for a while the Bosie sounded a bit dull and flat. If I played Bosie for a while the CFX sounded a bit too crispy, almost brittle.

In the end I came to really love the Bosendorfer - there's a warmth and woodiness to it when played softly but it can really open up if you dig in. Many people have criticised the Bosendorfer sample on Yamahas but I've always believed it's because they've been playing the CFX for a while first and they're just so different it takes time to appreciate the characteristics of the Bosie.

The nice thing about the Yamahas is that between the two principle piano sounds you have a great piano sound for almost any and every purpose. By contrast, on the higher end Rolands the American piano is just a joke and whilst the European piano is undoubtedly better and nicely playable it's still, to my ears, false sounding. Kawai has the SK-EX, which is very impressive, but partners it with their ancient EX, which I think is a truly horrible sounding piano.

I'll give my 'expert" opinion on my new clp 785 this Thursday or Friday when it arrives.

I think this is because of the quality of the yamaha sound system, you're hearing a higher audio fidelity, the kind of quality you only get with high end stereo systems or pro-studio monitor systems. I'll be using my clp 785 as a music player as well as piano by the sounds of it.

Hi all,

I wanted to share two things I did recently to enhance my enjoyment of CLP-745:

1. I purchased some light-dimming film for the LED display. The specific ones I got were called "Dim It" and work by static cling (no adhesive). If you cut it right you can make it cover the top part of the cheekblock where the display is and it looks natural. This reduces the light from the LED considerably (e.g. 75% reduction) which makes it blend *much* better with the rest of the controls when the display is on - particularly at night. I guess this is the best substitute for auto-off for those without 775/785/795.

2. I used the Piano Room to turn up the brightness of the Bosendorfer voice to 7 (default=5) and used System->Backup->Backup Setting->Voice=ON to save this setting even after turning off. This seems to be an interesting "hack" in that, as far as I can tell, the *binaural sample* for Bosendorfer is unreactive to the Brightness setting in Piano Room, whereas the normal stereo sample used for the speakers is affected by this setting (if you turn binaural off, you can hear this setting change the tone, but not with binaural on). This seems to be some kind of bug that is specific to the Bosendorfer binaural sample (CFX binaural seems fine btw)? Anyway, the net effect is that Bosendorfer gets a bit brighter through the speakers but stays the same through the headphones - which is exactly what I wanted for this voice since I find the sound to be lacking in brightness when playing through speakers.

Interesting .. So, it's not a bug - it's a feature!

Osho

In clp785 I put touch courve to hard1. To me this config was more natural to control moonlight sonata 3rd movement for example. In general use I prefer hard1 instead standard touch courve.