Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Yamaha Clavinova CLP-700 Series

I have decided to get a furniture style instrument for the office instead of the current FP30X I have on a K&M stand - because it looks nicer and would be practical with a flat top to put stuff on.

Just got back from trying out the CLP 725 - what a lovely little instrument that is. Seeing as I will probably never play anything but the default sample the lack of a display is actually a plus in my book and the built in audio interface worked as expected with the iPad I brought for testing that. Great action as well - nice and light and it bottoms out quite hard which I like - feels more like my acoustic (U1) than most plastic actions I've tried.

What a time to be an amateur musician - the tech is awesome :-)

It’s what you call furniture. I like the 725, nice action for the price, fine sample, but as furniture to me it is not much.

I'll post a picture when I arrives - I think it will look very pretty - ordered a white one with matching bench.

Been in the market looking at pianos to get within a year or so so I saw my local Yamaha dealer had nearly one of each model on hand to try so I got to give them a shot. No 725 but they did have the 735, the 745, the 785, the Nu1X and NX1, and the CSP-150 and CSP-170. The 785 was pretty good as was the 785. My wife was not as impressed with the 735 and I personally like the 745 action more than the 735. The 785 definitely sounded....I guess better to me but its hard to tell in a store sometimes The Nu1X was definitely my personal favorite and the price between the two are close enough that if I was making a decision today I would probably go with the Nu1X over the 785 personally I really just liked the action on the Nu1X a lot more over the 745 and 785 actions. However sadly both are probably outside my immediate budget but I have a several months of waffling and testing and saving to do so who knows maybe that will be the route I go. I was pretty impressed with the new CSP-700 series though. The only thing I really didn't like was the feel of the pedals but that may just be due to how it was set up.

Ok, I was not talking about the white one ;-)

“The 785 was pretty good as was the 785.”, you wrote. Maybe you forgot a word over the NX1?

BTW Your love for the Nu1x is a confirmation of my own thoughts.

I just noticed “Faust & Harrison” list “all” (AvantGrand) models “in stock”, and the N3X “ready to ship”, so I wonder why other dealers can’t get their hands on one of these for months, sometimes up to 7 or more months; so I ask, what gives?

Do some dealers get special treatment from Yamaha?

Is the “shortage” greatly exaggerated in order to jack-up prices (low supply/high demand)?

Is there only ‘one’ chip manufacturer in the whole world servicing everything from pianos to cars, microwaves, TVs, toasters, blenders, and anything else requiring some form of a ‘chip’? I thought we’d at least have ‘two’ chip-factories; you know, in case something went wrong with factory #1!

Once again, ‘one’ chip-factory burns down; ‘one’ blocked canal, and a virus now over two years old, and still, no one seems capable of figuring out how to navigate around these circumstances (no pun intended); what are we, ten-year-old(s)?

Imagine if we get hit by an asteroid ☄️, how on earth could we possibly recover from that if the whole world’s now gone into a mad spin mainly for missing chips, a canal, and a two-year-old virus!

I don't reckon the Germans are involved this time round, but our chippies got bombed during the last war . . . .

Don't look up!

(This comment was not sponsored by Netflix.)

You’re frustrated with and indignant over the global impacts of Covid.

Got it.

Oops I actually meant the 745 was pretty good as was the 785! Both impressed me though the 785 definitely sounds better with its built-in speakers over the 745 (unsurprisingly) but the actions were similar. I was keen to try out the CSP series as well because the P-515 uses the same action as the 170 and I wanted to see just how they felt. Even to my inexperienced hands I could see the difference the Nu1X felt the closest to the acoustics in the showroom (it is handy being able to bounce back and forth!) the 745/785 were very similar as well but didn't feel quite right. I couldn't tell you why really well but it definitely felt different. The CSP-170 was kinda like a heavier feeling version to me than the 745's action. I dunno maybe I will try and save up for a Nu1X lol

Not sure what all may be going wrong. Since you started with BLE, it might help PW help you if you confirm - what is it?

If it is/was part of your setup that produced lag, it may likely be some sort of wireless feature.

If you want to play on your piano such that your keypresses are sent to an external computer/app, which then returns this as audio to be sounded by your piano’s sound system ( speakers or headphone output), and you prefer minimal lag, it is generally recommended to do this over a wired connection.

Conversely, different uses/applications that do not involve time-sensitive variables ( such as physical/mechanical events like keypresses) - streaming audio is a popular example - generally work acceptably well over a wireless link.

You also reported double sound “played twice” , which indicates that your piano has “local control” enabled. As a general rule for your intended use/application, disabling Local Control will remedy the double echo problem.

Just to rule out the chance of any confusion:

Bluetooth MIDI is a technology that works over BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), so when talking about MIDI over Bluetooth we talk about MIDI over BLE and essentially everyone is talking about the same thing.

(But at the technical level BLE can -- and most often does -- transmit also other data than MIDI data.)

Good morning , i am finally getting an CLP 745… closed the deal today… exchange my mp7se for this. Im here cause i blind bought this, hadnt the chance to try it in person. Cause we dont have stores with this piano.
My question is , i like the action on this kawaii very much, very well weight keys. If you guys had the chance to play on an mp7 and the clp 745 … what did you prefer? I just want to know if im doing a good trade for no regrets.

blind buying is bad, asking us remains blind.

Appreciate the help… its the only way i can , unfortunately. I live in a country that doesnt have stores like US or Europe… its third world here. Sorry if i ask for help … but i will appreciate advice from who are here that can help and have played both. You dont need to answer. God bless you.

Sometimes any one of us may end up in one of those “ sometimes we all do what we think/feel we must do ... ” situations.

You and i have things in common. For instance, i live in what was once known as “USA” - rural Pennsylvania - where there are some small piano shops here or there, but none like Bonners with practically all the models of big-three brands in stock under one roof ... there are none of those any where around here that i know of ..... and i have an MP7 that, after realizing i bought blindly for mostly the wrong reasons, is too much DP for my needs .... collecting dust and still in showroom condition from having been mostly unused for over 5 years .... which, in January 2020, i finally realized i should get rid of in favor of a model that better suits my needs .... so i somewhat blindly became infatuated with the idea that a CLP745 is IT .... which i have not been able to find in stock to try to, you know?, to help avoid buying blindly, again 🙂... but then a virus took over the world, which eventually gave me over a year to realize that the 745 also is not what i need .... and another year to realize a DGX670 is more my speed, and might be in stock locally at the small Yami shop .... if i can ever find a good home for a mostly-never-used MP7 😀

Yes Drew, I feel you... its complicate to choose a piano when there's no way you can test before...have to see lots of reviews, opinions.. even study the parts of it to understand better. I think too that the mp7 is great in a lot of ways, have too many options that I never touched. Im a more classic pianist, the action in the Mp7 is really good, love it, but things like have to use external audios monitors, cables, stands... here we don't have good options for stand, even more for a piano that is super heavy.
That's why im buying the CLP, cause Mp7 is more like a stage piano, for shows eat...and CLP it have this more traditional feeling, and its just one thing and you are ready. I prefer yamaha sounds too.. My only concern is the action keys... if ill be satisfied with it... if have a good weight key, etc..

Those of you still looking for information on the CLP 745 - Youtuber "DariaPiano" (a classical pianist) has done a detailed set of videos comparing digital versus acoustic pianos. And the digital piano she compares to is CLP 745:






I only skimmed them so far but they seem quite good.

She also has a 4-part series which is a "review" of the CLP 745 but skimming through that I felt that a lot of it was repeated information from spec sheets, etc. However she says the CLP 745 is weighted in 3 sections (can anyone confirm?), suggests playing with the numerical touch sensitivity in the Voice Edit mode (*not* hard1/soft1/etc but the 0-128 value), and says that turning VRM off is more representative of most (non CFX) acoustic pianos. The full set of videos is here:






Prior to the CLP 745 she said she had a P-515; she says the action on CLP 745 is a bit lighter and more balanced, but nevertheless she actually prefers the action on the P-515.


Finally - I'd mention that I'm now playing a piece with a lot of repeated A notes with pedal ("Now We Are Free" arranged by Patrick Pietschmann) and I find the B-flat "resonance" issue mentioned previously to be quite annoying when playing through speakers (no problems through headphones). I've had the piano for over a year now and this is the first piece I've played where it's really badly noticeable; it's not a deal-breaker for the instrument by any means but definitely something I wish Yamaha would fix or have identified previously. The resonance issue for the A note seems less for Bosendorfer so currently I switch to that sample or some other one; I could also transpose the instrument down a step but that's just annoying to do.

I've only listened to the first video but as someone who has both an acoustic, which I play in the daytime and a digital which I play in the evening I don't really agree with her analysis though it was very useful to think about it. With digitals the sensors nowadays enable you to easily create nuances but to tie her problem down to the use of the knuckles seems to me a simplification. I thought the problem was more wrist not to mention arm weight.