Yamaha CLP-970

I would just like to comment on the last review and on my previous review. I do agree that it does sound tinny with the speakers. However, with headphones, the sound quality improves dramatically and it is a very good digital reproduction of a Yamaha grand piano. If you try the CLP-970 with headphones in the same sitting as a Yamaha acoustic, I think you'll agree. If you don't agree, I think you'll at least appreciate the sound a bit more.

Very easy and intuitive for piano playing.

Very nice keyboard, like all Yamahas. Better than most uprights and many grands.

I was surprised how bad the sound was when I tried this in the piano store. Given it has 128 polyphony, I was expecting it to sound considerably better than my $1000 64 polyphony Yamaha P120 (which uses a very similar piano sample). It didn't. While I could hear the extra rom, somewhat, the whole sound was really tinny, even with brightness set down. Overall the sound wasn't very "musical" to me. I think the simple speakers on my P120 sound better. For that matter, the CLP 920 also sounded more musical, though I could definitely hear the lower polyphony in comparison to that machine.

This is one of the better digital pianos I've heard in its price range, but not worth the money compared with a $1000 P120.

Very easy to use and change sounds. Well explained manual and simple construction instructions. I havent tried setting up MIDI yet so I cant comment on that aspect

The Clavinova has excellent features. Just to name a few, it has 128 note polyphony, keys with graded hammer effect, MIDI IN and OUT, Reverb setting. Grand Piano, Harpsichord, and lots of other sounds. Piano is the main sound with something like 88 Megs of memory dedicated just to the Piano sound.

The sounds are incredible, see the Overall category for full details. It works best for classical music, but any kind of piano music is what this is intended for. If you're looking for a piano, this is it. The sound is probably second only to the CLP-990 which is double the price. The 970 does however have a minor flaw. When notes are held too long, they lose their gentle "pianoesque" sound and it sounds more like a computer generated tone. I only notice this on a few notes and it is not something that would make me reconsider purchasing the instrument in any way. Also, it features a "Soundboard Reverb" mode, but it doesn't seem to make it sound like a real Soundboard Reverb. It doesnt seem to do much at all really. Maybe I just havent figured it all out yet.

Seems ok to me. This thing cant be carried around with less than 2 people.

Never dealt with Yamaha

I own the most incredible 1967 Steinway upright that sounds better than 95% of all grands that I have ever played. This upright far surpasses even the newly made Steinway uprights. The only reason I would ever get rid of that piano is if you gave me a Steinway model D or model B grand piano as a trade.

That being said, I am unfortunate to have to leave it behind for a year with my parents as my job requires me to move around to many different places within the next 12 months. I set out to find a keyboard worthy of being a temporary replacement. I tried everything, and I eventually narrowed it down to the Kawai MP9500 and the Yamaha Clavinova 990 and 970. The 990 was almost the same price as another upright and I figured that was just too expensive. However, the 970 had almost all of the same features and was half the price. The 970 sounds as close to a piano as you can get. It is not tinny like the Kawai in the upper registers and has a good tonal balance. If you close your eyes and listen to just the sounds, it could be mistaken for an excellent CD quality recording of a real piano. I compared the sound to the Yamaha concert grands at the store from which the Clavinova is modeled, and it sounds like a CD quality reproduction of the sound. Of course it can't reproduce the way the sound board of a real piano resonates, but it makes a very good attempt. The touch is also as close as you can get to its acoustic counterpart. This is simply the best for anyone looking for a digital piano.

How does it compare to the competition? Hands down the best. I spent at least 6 months comparing everything, the Kawai MP9500, the Roland stage pianos and even the Roland HP digital piano series and nothing else even came close to having the same features, sound quality, or touch of the Clavinova. As I said before, the only thing better is the CLP-990, but that's about double the price for wooden keys and 88 sound banks. It was not that much of an improvement in sound or touch to warrant the price jump.

How does it compare to my beloved Steinway? It's good, but it's not a Steinway. It will be very good for when I do a lot of moving where I dont want my Steinway smashed aroun by movers. I am also moving to an apartment, so the headphone jacks are almost a necessity so I can continue playing my Rachmaninoff Prelude in C# Minor or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody. It was deffinitely a good purchase.