Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards CLP 340 vs HP 305 vs CA 63: a beginner's view

Dear all, after reading so many valuable reflections about those DPs, some days ago I went to a store in Belgium to try them and make a decision about my next purchase. They all cost 2000 € (euro). Intentionally, I played with headphones, because this is what I will most often do in my flat. Only three "beginner" reactions here, my apologies for the low quality of my English. CLP 340: a very high quality "real piano" sound in terms of colours, nice touch, but too 'light' for me. CA 63: good quality sound, nice touch. HP 305: the less "digital" impression in terms of "grand piano sound", and an impressive realistic feeling in terms of touch. Given that I will mainly play "piano" sound, the HP 305 seems the most attractive choice. Let me thank all poster of this forum for their so interesting contributions. I will keep on reading them with pleasure.

I owne the 305 because it's the only of the three with true natural piano sound. In the mean time I bought The Grand 3 and Quantum Leap Piano's to enhance the fun.

I vote for HP-305. Technically the Roland SuperNATURAL piano kills most other DP sound engines.

Technically for sure, but do you like the sound signature, that's for me the more important question. As you have already tried all three DPs I guess you have already taken your choice. All the best with the HP-305!

Actually, that is exactly what I also thought about the HP307 initially (by reading about the technical specs.), but I was very disappointed after testdriving the real thing.

hp305, no question, among those choices.

choleric, any rationale?

Dear all,
Yesterday I went through the comments in the following thread:
http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1405341/1.html
I found them very interesting, despite the fact that the focus was the 'triplet' Roland HP 307 - Kawai CA93 - Yamaha CLP 380.
Now, these DPs are sold - in Belgium stores - at around 2800 €, which exceeds my max budget of 2000 €. This is the reason I was focussing on HP 305 - Kawai CA63 - Yamaha 340.
Now, all the posters seem to agree that a 'good choice' is a delicate decision-making process, where a number of parameters come into play:
USE: mainly headphones ? Mainly grand piano ?
SOUND preferences: the solid, traditional, 'classical' sound signature of Yamaha CLP 340, or the warm, round, 'less-digital' sound colour of Roland HP 305 ?
TOUCH: mainly looking for THE perfect simulation of an acoustic piano (because you do want to play that nice song at a party in a real piano after practising it digitally at home) ?
An - added to that - would it be better to pay that 800 € difference to jump into the upper level HP 307 - CA93 - CLP 380, considering the fact that I am not going to use other sound & voices than grand piano?
And no, I didn't make my mind yet
Stefano

Oh, I thought your decision was set... Then... I (personally!) would go for the CA63...

No, seriously.

Regarding your question whether additional 800 Euro is worth it:

HP-305/307: I would say yes, because the keyboard is significantly improved (escapement, third sensor), and there are much more custom settings of the sound possible.

CA63/CA93: I'm not sure. Sound quality is identical, some more sounds on CA93, a "fake" escapement in CA93, and, most importantly, a unique wooden resonance board. If you often play with loudspeakers, I would go with the CA93, in any other case CA63 would be more then sufficient. I love it, especially the keyboard action!

CLP340/CLP380: Well, keyboard action is identical, the little fake wooden keys are no real improvement. Compared with headphones the sound of CLP380 sounds better to me. Because of iAFC the loudspeaker system of CLP380 is preferrable over CLP340, but again: It depends on whether you often use loudspeakers or not. Due to the better sound quality I would lean to CLP380, but AFAIK it's way out of the price range, it's (in Germany) roundabout 4.200 Euro (CLP380) compared to 2.000 Euro (CLP340). That's not acceptable.

Good points, Mucci, they help me make some progress ...
And I agree with them all.

CLP 380 = too expensive for my budget ...
CA63 = a very attractive option, I shoud play it again this week to better grasp the quality of the keyboard response ...
HP 307 = yes, escapement is a real "plus" for a classical piano player like me.
If I decide to pay the extra 800 €, I would go for HP 307 instead of CA93, and again, here the decision would be very 'personal', based on my perception of the 'better' expressiveness of the Roland Supernatural sound generator ...
Thank you again for your helpful reaction
Stefano

I couldn't stand the thumpy keyboard of the Hp305. And so went for the CA63.


Andy T

Here's another reference thread:
http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1407580/1.html

TADutchman, thank you for identifying that thread: the contributions of mezzo-poor and other posters make it very helpful.

You're welcome!
By the way, Andrée (also) bought a CA63 after all ;-)

I've played a HP305/307 in a store, also some other Yamaha and Korg DP's. They all make some sort of noise when the key is depressed and yes it's a clunk with the HP305/307, but I wouldn't say it's not loud or intrusive. That just my opinion.

Unfortunately I've not yet found a store near me where I can try a Kawai CA63/93 - are you really saying the key action is totally silent, or just very quiet? Thanks

It's not totally silent, that's not possible, but it's much less annoying in my opinion. The noise usually doesn't bother me as a player, but maybe the others that are in the same room when I'm practising with headphones on.

Thanks. I think we need some You Tube videos of playing different models with the sound/volume turned off :-)

Even that is difficult if recorded by different people with different equipment from different locations and a different playing style...

It is not totally quiet, but thanks to the speaker placement I do not notice the sound of the keys.

Andy T

Im really confused by these three DPs. They all seem pretty good to me. I like the 5 level sampling on the 380 (4 level on the 340) but I love the SuperNatural engine on the 305.

Dont know much about the CA63 except the owner of my local piano store said they have the most realistic action of any DP (he happens to be a Kawai dealer of course)

Ive seen the 340 for under £2000 GBP but the 380 jumps up to over £3000k.

is there any general consensus here ? what do we think is the best DP for the money ?