Hi. I have a Yamaha p155. I've had it since July and absolutely love it. Today I went into this fancy piano and digital piano shop. I played a couple of the $3,000 to $7,000 Yamaha Clarinovas and they sound so much better (in that they sound clearer and more like a real piano) than my p155. Why is this? I think they both 128 polyphony and don't they both have 5 tone sampling or something... Why do the Clarinovas sound better? Just wondering...thanks.

Becouse they have better speakers/speaker systems.

Thank you. Would hooking my p155 up to good studio monitors make the sound comparable?

PS - what is with that ad for Piano Buyer posted as a response to my question?

you've made 28 posts and never noticed that? lol, well it's just a ad.. haha, ignore it. :P

and yes, i believe that if you plug in your p155 to a "decent" amp, you will get the same sound as the clarinovas, if not better. dp speakers are typically bad, so people normally just buy it for the weighted keys, which the p-155 excels at.

so you technically buy a clarinova at a fraction of its cost, if you hook it up to a amp.

Not all DP speakers suck, just on the really low end ones and stage pianos.
Clavinovas all have very good speakers IMO.

Speakers are the last link in the audio chain and can make a HUGE difference.

When you listen to a digital piano, what you hear is the speaker. Yes there is a bunch of "stuff" driving that speaker, like multi-layered samples, key-off samples and and amplifier but in the end you hear the speaker.

Would a pair of monitors help? Likely yes but you have to experiment with the speakers, the amp and placement of the speakers and the direction they face. You might find for example the monitors sound best when mounted "knee high" facing up at the ceiling bases forward if your piano is backed up to a hard surface wall Of they might be best in the more conventional ear level both facing forward. It all depends on the room. It also depends if the player or the audience is to have the best sound.

Amps matter too. You can buy powered monitors and take whatever comes inside or you can audition amps and maybe even effects boxes like reverbs and active crossovers.

I'm experimenting. I'm finding I like the sound of vacuum tubes. I think they help kill the "digital sound" and then full rang speakers mounted at a tilt. Some day I'll figure out a sound system I like.

In the end you could easily spend $1,000 on a sound system or even 5X that much.