CLP-170 or CLP-990

[Steph]

Hi everyone,

I currently own a CLP-120 and I am looking to upgrade it within the next 12 months. There is no way I can have an acoustic piano in my current house so I am looking at what is the closest to it. I have been reading a lot of reviews about the CLP-170 and the CLP-990 and I can't seems to find a clear cut concensus of which one is better. If we forget all the bells and whisles and just consider the "piano like" sound and touch which one do you believe is superior, clp-170 or clp-990?

Thanks for any thoughts,

Steph
:confused:

[Steph]

Hi there,

In case someone else had the same question that I had, here's a reply I got from Yamaha.

"
The Yamaha CLP-170 and CLP-990 though both the "highest end pianos in both their respective series 100 and 900) have some major differences as well.

Of course the best thing for you to do if possible is to sit down and play each and make a qualified decision on which piano sounds and feels better than the other to you personally. If you can't make a comparison then here are some facts to look at.

We change our digital piano lines every two-three years so the newer CLP-170 will have slightly better/newer sounding voice samples then that of the CLP-990 which came out two years prior.

THe CLP-990 does have a "real wooden grand keyboard action" installed inside the cabinet so the "feel of the 990 is so breath takingly real'. The CLP-170 does not have a real wooden action but uses our newest GH3 keyboard action
technology (you have to feel both to base an opinion on which feels better to you).

The CLP-170 has the new iAFC (interactive Acoustic Field Control) an onboard button that when pressed gives the player a feeling of playing in a concert hall, the 990 does not have this. The CLP-990 has 152 Megs of total sample ROM which 80 Megs of wave ROM have been dedicated to the Stereo Grand Piano
sample alone. The newer CLP-170 has 64 Megs total wave ROM.

Both pianos have a Floppy Disk drive onboard for playback of GM files and for saving performances and both have 60 watts x 2 of onboard speaker power. THe internal recording sequencer on the 990 was 75,000 notes capacity and the CLP-170 is twice that at 150,000 notes.

Bottom line you have choices in the features and the ultimate deciding factor will come fom sitting down and playing them,

I hope this helps,
"

[Nunatax]

Hi Steph,

I've had to make the same decision just last month though I had ruled out the CLP 170 much sooner and had narrowed my choices down to the CLP 990 and the GT 20.

I ruled out the CLP 170 because I found it's touch to be too light which was solved in the CLP 990 : much heavier. I need a rather heavy touch. However, this is just a personal matter. Whether it has something to do with the wooden keys, I don't know, maybe it's just the Natural Keyboard's hammer action. And I find plastic keyboards to have some unpleasant, "jumpy" feeling. That's another personal matter... Everyones opinion about this is different...

For the CLP 170 : try out the second octave above middle C, it sounds a little "shrill" which might get on your nerves. The CLP 170 has a very nice sound but I feel the 990 was "more carefully" sampled.
I did like the iAFC sound system in the 170, though it couldn't compete with the difference in keyboard to me.
The weight of both keyboards is graded (heavier in the lower registers to lighter in the higher, exactly like a grand piano) but in the 990 it's in six steps, in the 170 in only four (not that I could really notice it...)
The sound specifications of the 990 are much more impressive than those of the 170 (much more memory used, separate stereo samples for all 88 keys), but don't be fooled by that, the 170's sound is certainly as good as that of the 990 if not a little better. Only that badly sampled octave is somewhat disappointing.

Take your time comparing them, sleep it over, go back and compare them again. Play different pieces, slow ones with a lot of feeling and very fast ones with long runs and heavy chords.

Good luck!

Rgds,
Michiel

[Steph]

Hi Michiel,

Thanks for offering your thoughts on this. By now, I am contempling a third option... Which is to keep my current CLP120 and use it as a midi keyboard in conjunction with the software sampler Kompakt. I heard some sound samples of a Yamaha C7 and I was amazed (www.vintaudio.com). The bad thing is that I cannot really try this before I choose since this is more in the field of build-it-yourselft sampler kind of thing. Money wise this complete setup would be in the same ball park as buying a CLP-990. The Clp990 would get me the wooden keyboard + the integrated 60W amp and speakers. The sampler solution would get me 4 Gb samples size of piano and the flexibility to add other instruments sound in the future.

I dunno, I dunno, I dunno!!!
And thanks for offering your thoughts.

Still sleeping on all of that,

Steph

[Nunatax]

Be careful with such setups. Mind that the CLP 120 only has a 20W amp to offer, that's not a lot and the result might be disappointing (unless you'll use an external amp and external speakers of course).

Since I'm not that familiar with this stuff, I suggest you go to http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi and post your dilemma on the digital pianos forum. There are some guys who know pretty much about midi and other kind of this stuff. I'm sure they can help you out!

Succes!

Rgds,
Michiel

[jjm542]

You can read my exposition on the Gigastudio soft sampler with Yamaha digitals at:
http://www.cvpug.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36&highlight=gigastudio

Gigastudio was the first of the soft samplers and has by far the largest set of sample libraries. Kontakt is a more recent product. I haven't used it. Many people think it has the potential to be better than Gigastudio, but my sense is that right now it is less stable, particularly when streaming samples from the disk in real time, a place where Gigastudio excels. Some sample developers like Vintage Audio have started releasing their products for multiple soft samplers, including Kontakt, but Giga still offers a wider choice.

To get expert opinions on these products, see the forums at www.northernsounds.com
The "samples" forum is usually the most active. Native Instruments (makers of Kontakt) also sponsor a forum there.

IMHO, soft samplers provide by far the best sounds (including piano) but they are complex and expensive. Be prepared for some hassle. Also, as Michiel says, a better audio system adds a lot of value to any sample player, whether internal or external.

If you're happy with the CLP120, I think a soft sampler is a reasonable add-on if you're comfortable with computers and midi.
jim
(who has the Vintage Audio Yamaha and loves it - also the Vintage uprights, the Post Steinway and Bosendorfer, the Bardstown Bosendorfer, ArtVista Malmsjo, BiggaGigga Malmsjo and "Rain Piano" plus others.

[Steph]

Hi Michiel,

I am already setup with an external amp and speakers and I use the internal speakers as well. The internals get the sound at the correct location while the externals add tremendously to the lower frequencies. Thanks for the forum link, it would gave me some more reading to do!

Hi Jim,

I already read your previous post on Gigastudio and this actually was my eye opener regarding the soft sampler option. I am happy to know that you like that samples library with hands on experience. It is kind of weird to choose between these expensive sound library just from a demo recording and that is when there IS a demo recording provided!

Thanks again to both of you,

Steph

[jjm542]

Here's an announcement for a Giga "sample player." If it works, it might be a way to get started inexpensively. There are a number of low-cost/free Giga piano samples on the web.

Forte offers ultra-realistic emulation of grand pianos, using giga
format sample sets. Of course, it will play any instrument you have a
compatible sample file for, but it's optimized for pianos:
- 160-voice polyphony on suitably fast Pentium/Athlon PCs
- up to 32 layers, including pedal-up and down, and release-triggered
samples
- high-quality reverb built in
- head-related transfer function (HRTF) for realistic, fatigue-free
headphone listening
- realistic stereo simulation for mono sample files
- realistic pedal-down simulation for sample files without a
pedal-down layer
Even with some of the free piano sample sets that are available, you
get surprisingly realistic sound. It's $75 US, and a free 15-day
evaluation is offered. See www.coyotes.bc.ca/Forte.html