I heard from Yamaha salesman, who is very knowledgable on the CVP line that there is a difference in the speakers between the polished ebony yamahas and rosewood. He demonstrated the difference in the CLP line as he did not have a CVP 407 there next to the 409.

I could hear that the sound was quite a bit more "open" and pleasing in the polished ebony than in the Rosewood.

He said there was something to do with the frequency, but I can't remember the exact term.

The other differences between 407 and 409 are the finish and the bench. Does anyone know of any others. There is about a $1500 diference between 407 and 409 is it really worth it to go to 409?

I think the same will apply to the new 509 Rosewood v. 509 PE, so I would appreciate any comments from those in the know.

Thanks

boxijie,

I will take the position that the sales person is either confused or misinformed. There is NO difference between the CVP407 and CVP409 other than keytop material, finish and bench.

Which CLPs did he use to illustrate the difference in sound?

boxijie, I would recommend referring to the following pages on the Yamaha America website:

CVP407
CVP409

I opened both links and compared the specifications side-by-side.

The speaker specifications of the two models appear to be the same:

iAFC: Yes
Amplifiers: 60W x 2 + 20W x 2
Speakers:(16 cm + 5 cm + 3cm (dome)) x 2 + 1- cm x 2

Aside from the Polished Ebony finish of the CVP409, the only other difference I can see is the Synthetic Ivory key tops on the higher-end model.

Of course, there could be an error on the Yamaha America website, however you may wish to print out these specifications page and show them to the dealer, just to clarify the differences.

Kind regards,
James
x

407 and 409 have the same samples and the same sound system.

It's realistic to believe that different types of wood and/or finishes that the cabinet is constructed out of would have a different sound.

Hmm, it's hard to imagine that the veneer used would have that profound of an effect on the sound (though I guess it's possible). When he used the CLP's, did he use the exact same models? Also, with iAFC, it's possible to do a fair amount of tweaking to the sound, so you'll want to make sure the dealer at the very least resets the pianos to factory defaults and/or calibrates the units so you know that you're comparing apples to apples. Also note that the position of the units in the store can have an effect on the sound, so try to get them as close together as possible.

My salesperson confirmed that the speakers in the ebony polish finish units are "flat frequency response" whereas in the rosewood for the same unit (e.g. CVP 409PE vs 407)are "mid bias speakers". This and the bench and the finish cause the price difference between the CVP 409 and 407. Apparently flat frequency response speakers are about double the price of mid bias speakers. He did mention that in the newer models, this difference is not as apparent as it was in older models.

As I mentioned he did demonstrate the difference on CLP models and there was a difference.

Obviously with headphones there would be no difference.

Anyone in the know can confirm the use of the different speakers?

Frequency response measurement is not a very perfect science and there is a lot of smoke and mirrors and marketing specmanship involved. Different labs will often get different results from measurements. Even a flat response speaker that falls in the +/-3 dB range can have a more spikey distribution relative to another speaker within the same boundaries.

With all the harmonics and overtones associated to piano sounds it can make a big difference in the quality of what you hear. I am not discrediting the salesman but rest assured the location, temperature and types of acoustically reflective/absorptive surfaces near the piano can greatly effect what your hearing also. I am assuming that the recordings are the same.

Having a flat frequency response speaker upgrade would most certainly warrant mention of it in the specs, which I do not see. With all the other hype and specs present and this one missing, I would look at this somewhat dubiously and investigate further.

boxije

The salesman's line about flat vs biased speakers is simply not true. This is not my opinion, this is a fact. The Yamaha service manual that covers both the CVP407 and 409 (because they're the same)lists the same part numbers for speakers for both models. The only parts that are different between the two models are cabinet parts. The ONLY difference between these two is the finish, bench and keytops.

Please let me know which CLP models he used to "demonstrate" the difference and I'll be happy to look those up as well.

All he showed you was that there was a difference between the two CLP models. It would help if you could tell us what the actual models were because if he used two different models, then there is effectively no comparison to be made as everything is also different. Did he use the same model just different finishes? Even with that, the CLP cases are so radically different than the CVP I don't see how you can extrapolate anything even if there were equiv. speaker differences.

Given that, IMHO I think you're splitting hairs. Even if there is a difference, it's hard to imagine it making so much of a difference as to justify the cost, so you either buy into the PE cabinet and bench (and synth ivory) or it's not worth your while.