Just bought a CVP - 207

[Pawz81]

I was waffling between the 205 & the 207, but after the dealer gave me a full demo on the two machines, I got blown away by the awesome features and sound on the 207... so I bought it :D

I got it from Steves Loates Keyboard Centre in Ontario, Canada - Pat helped me out and I must say I'm ecstatic to get such an wonderful instrument. :D :D

Put the order in on Saturday, and hopefully I can get it by tomorrow... although I do live about 5 min away from the Keyboard Center ;)

[Ian J. Evans]

Hi Pawz81

Did the Keyboard Centre have more models than the one you bought or are they pretty well cleared out now awaiting the even numbered models...?

I live about 3 hours drive away and am thinking seriously of buying a CVP.

I think you got a good price, was it a tough haggle...?

Ian

[Pawz81]

Well, when I went there a couple days ago, Pat had several models out - CVP 203,205,207 & 209, plus the CLP 110,130,150 & 170.

I got the 207 for $6325 CDN and Pat actually threw in a microphone kit & a mike stand too :). There was a big Yamaha sale last weekend, so I didn't have to haggle too much - the price Pat offered originally went down $500.

I can't wait :D

[Ian J. Evans]

Hi Pawz81

This must be my 4th attempt to reply to your most recent post but I am having a frustrating time with this forum as after logging in and being recognized when I try to post it tells me I do not have permission as I am not logged in.

If this goes thru' would you have time to contact me at ij.evans@bmts.com please.

Ian

[Pawz81]

Sent you an email Ian. Awaiting your response :)

[Ian J. Evans]

Hi Pawz81

No email received as of 12:25 A.M. July 29.

Did you note the dot between the j and the e of evans in the email address...?

Ian

[Pawz81]

ij.evans@bmts.com is the email address I sent it to. Let me know if you're not recieving it - I certainly am recieving your emails

[Pawz81]

Pawz81 = Andrew Vanderven btw. ;)

[Pawz81]

After getting through to Ian, I wrote up this long email, and I thought I should share it with you guys here as well.. It basically covers what I went through / thought about when I was in the market for a digital piano...

I’m sort of on the opposite side of things than you.. I’ve been playing the piano for several years now, and I just recently decided to buy my first ever digital piano. Only because my apartment (and my wallet!) wouldn’t fit a Grand ;).

To be entirely honest, I haven’t even looked at anything other than the Yamaha clavinovas . . I looked around and read a lot of other people’s opinions on the pianos, and it seemed to come down to the fact that Yamaha does have an edge on the sound & quality department, although they do tend to be a bit more expensive. But anyways, I just decided to focus on the Yamahas in any case.

Then I looked at the CLP vs the CVP. The obvious advantage of the CLP is the fact that it is considerably cheaper than any of the equivalent-quality CVP models. Other than that, the CVPs have everything a CLP has, plus a whole lot more. Now, I’m a sucker for technology and playing around with music & different instruments and all that kind of thing .. I’ve always wanted an instrument that would let me compose, fiddle, record, etc etc… so I dropped the CLP line out of my considerations.

IF you are looking for just a digital piano first and foremost, and aren’t too interested in lots of different voices, composing, auto-accompaniment, recording, voice-manipulation and all that, I would recommend going with the CLPs.. the CLP 170 I found had a very nice sound. You also get several different instruments that you can play with on the CLPs - I think something like 12 or 16 different instruments – so if that’s enough variety for you, I’d say go with the CLP models.
As for the CLP prices, I can’t remember too accurately what they were since I only glanced at them, but I remember the CLP 110 was going for something like $1,100 and it went up from there.

Now.. the CVPs. Pat had the CVP 201, 203, 205, 207 & 209 out.. and I played on them all ;). The 209 I dropped out of consideration right away … for a price tag $1000 more than the 207, you got a couple more voices and a black cabinet.. It just didn’t seem worth it at all.

The 201 & 203 & 205 I found to be a bit lacking in the sound & features department.. their screens are pretty small, black & white, and rather jumbled. Especially compared to the 207 ;). I played around with them, but I just couldn’t help thinking that if I was going to spend the money on a good digital piano with lots of features, I should probably go for the one with the biggest bang for the buck…

And that’s why I got the 207.. I wasn’t sure about it until Pat dropped the price down an extra $500.. but for $5,500 (The CVP 205 was close to $5000 if I remember right) I thought it was a pretty good deal. The feature set it has is incredible.. if you go to www.keyboard.on.ca you can look at the different feature lists for the different models…. In fact, here’s the link to the CVP comparison chart..

CVP Comparison chart (http://www.keyboard.on.ca/cvp_comparison_chart.htm)
Basically, I found that the 203 is a much better deal than the 201, and the 207 is a better deal than the 205… The 207 gets you a boosted speaker system, more than double the polyphony, vocal harmony, style accompaniment with almost 300 different styles, 945 different voices, a digital equalizer, 5 different options for tweaking the instruments, expression pedal (you can set the pedal to do things like volume, reverb, record, etc) and so on. The vocal harmony is really cool if you’re into any kind of singing.. it takes your voice and harmonizes with it based on what chords are being played on the piano, so you can get things like a barbershop quartet effect, or a choir, or a duet, etc.

In the end I decided that the CVP 207 would be the instrument to meet all my needs. I hope to start teaching some lower-grade students in the future, and my fiancee is definitely going to want to learn the piano as well, plus I’ve always wanted something which would let me play around and compose without losing the touch feel and sound of a real piano. Admittedly it doesn’t sound exactly the same as an acoustic, but to be honest I played on some of the upright’s at the Keyboard centre and I thought the Clavinova quality of sound was actually somewhere near a grand….not quite the same, but preferable to an upright (And uprights start at $3,500!!)

Oh, and the 207 came with a microphone kit & stand.. the kit was standard, but I got Pat to throw in the stand with it.

I wanted to pack it into my car right away and drive away with it, but it weighs about 250 pounds and is bigger than my trunk.. so I have to be patient and wait until Friday..

Anyways, I hope this helps. If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to ask.