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#1511389 - 09/08/10 10:12 AM
Narrowing search - yamaha p155, cp33 or cp50
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Full Member
Registered: 09/04/10
Posts: 93
Loc: VA
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Ok, I believe I will be choosing from the digital pianos mentioned in subject. Some ??? on these. Is the cp55 a significant upgrade to the cp33 other than more bells and whistles? Pros and cons on internal vs. external speakers, please. It's hard for my to try many pianos out because of the rural area I live in. Any opinions on these will be appreciated.
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#1511499 - 09/08/10 12:54 PM
Re: Narrowing search - yamaha p155, cp33 or cp50
[Re: PianosJoy]
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3000 Post Club Member
Registered: 12/28/08
Posts: 3768
Loc: Redondo Beach, California
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The P155, CP33 and CP50 all have the same GH key action. the the keys are the same.
As far as the sound goes the order (best first) is CP50, p155, CP33. Not surprisingly, the piano that was released most recently has the best sample technology inside and the CP50 is newest.
The CP pianos have some nice features for use live on stage. Some features that in the P155 are inside a menu setting two levels deep are moved up to physical knobs on the CP33, an example would be the ratio of volumes with a layered pair of voices. If you are playing live, you can't be fiddling with pressing buttons and reading an display while 200 people watch, you need a quicker way. the CP has that but at home, so it takes 30 seconds, big deal. the CP has lots of optimization for use as a MIDI controller while the P155 is designed as a home practice piano where quality sound, at low volume level is more importance then performance features and midi control.
The CP50 costs more and might be worth it if you think it sounds much better than the p155. I've not been able to compare them side by side but by all acounts the CP50's sound is an improvement over the P155 but not a huge revolution. The improvement is incremental
The other thing to concider is speakers. If you plan to buy external speakers then yo don't care some muiuch about if the DP has internal built-in speakers.
It might be worth taking a day trip to the nearest Guitar Center or Sam Ash store and spending an afternoon there. I did that in late 2009 a couple times but them I have a half dozen large music stores within 20 miles of the house. If you don't have good headphones (that means $100 or more) buy some before you head out to test the pianos.
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#1511536 - 09/08/10 02:03 PM
Re: Narrowing search - yamaha p155, cp33 or cp50
[Re: ChrisA]
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Full Member
Registered: 09/04/10
Posts: 93
Loc: VA
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The P155, CP33 and CP50 all have the same GH key action. the the keys are the same.
As far as the sound goes the order (best first) is CP50, p155, CP33. Not surprisingly, the piano that was released most recently has the best sample technology inside and the CP50 is newest.
The CP pianos have some nice features for use live on stage. Some features that in the P155 are inside a menu setting two levels deep are moved up to physical knobs on the CP33, an example would be the ratio of volumes with a layered pair of voices. If you are playing live, you can't be fiddling with pressing buttons and reading an display while 200 people watch, you need a quicker way. the CP has that but at home, so it takes 30 seconds, big deal. the CP has lots of optimization for use as a MIDI controller while the P155 is designed as a home practice piano where quality sound, at low volume level is more importance then performance features and midi control.
The CP50 costs more and might be worth it if you think it sounds much better than the p155. I've not been able to compare them side by side but by all acounts the CP50's sound is an improvement over the P155 but not a huge revolution. The improvement is incremental
The other thing to concider is speakers. If you plan to buy external speakers then yo don't care some muiuch about if the DP has internal built-in speakers.
It might be worth taking a day trip to the nearest Guitar Center or Sam Ash store and spending an afternoon there. I did that in late 2009 a couple times but them I have a half dozen large music stores within 20 miles of the house. If you don't have good headphones (that means $100 or more) buy some before you head out to test the pianos. Thank you.
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#1511537 - 09/08/10 02:04 PM
Re: Narrowing search - yamaha p155, cp33 or cp50
[Re: PianosJoy]
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Full Member
Registered: 09/04/10
Posts: 93
Loc: VA
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Oh, also, what about the cp5 as I might have an opportunity to get a good deal on one.
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#1511867 - 09/08/10 11:02 PM
Re: Narrowing search - yamaha p155, cp33 or cp50
[Re: PianosJoy]
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Full Member
Registered: 12/15/09
Posts: 76
Loc: Kansas
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I second that on the good headphones. You need to spend around $100 for good quality. It also gives you an equal playing field to listen, as different pianos might very well be hooked up to different speaker systems.
Sprout
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#1524433 - 09/28/10 02:40 PM
Re: Narrowing search - yamaha p155, cp33 or cp50
[Re: ChrisA]
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Junior Member
Registered: 09/27/10
Posts: 4
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The P155, CP33 and CP50 all have the same GH key action. the the keys are the same. I don't know if this is exactly true. In my testing the various boards recently, I found the P155 action to be much more pleasant than the CP50's action (I can't speak to the CP33). The CP50 felt like the GH3 action to me, which I am not a fan of. The action is very springy and it feels like the keys are actively trying to fight back against you playing them. The P155 felt like the GH action, which has less of the 'fighting' kind of feeling. This is all empirical, and might just boil down to the differences unit to unit, but I did play them not side-by-side, but in the same visit to the store (in different rooms). I guess the bottom line is: definitely try to get your fingers on the boards if you are trying to decide. Playing the CP50 and P155 together put the CP50 out of the running. But I ultimately pushed the budget up quite a bit and went for the CP5. And the key action was the thing that made the call for me on that one.
_________________________
Yamaha CP-5
...and still paying it off
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#1524520 - 09/28/10 05:37 PM
Re: Narrowing search - yamaha p155, cp33 or cp50
[Re: PianosJoy]
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3000 Post Club Member
Registered: 07/07/04
Posts: 3992
Loc: Vught, The Netherlands
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I own the CP5 but would recommend the CP33 since you could probably buy that at a very good price especially if you buy one second hand.
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#1524573 - 09/28/10 06:28 PM
Re: Narrowing search - yamaha p155, cp33 or cp50
[Re: LindyHopper]
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2000 Post Club Member
Registered: 09/24/09
Posts: 2343
Loc: Florida
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This is all empirical, and might just boil down to the differences unit to unit ... I think that's the reason. When I bought a CLP240, I also tried a CLP270 and a CLP330. All have the same GH3 keyboard. But this particular CLP330 had bouncy feel in the C2 octave. The others did not. It must be sample variation. I still think that the mechanics of the GH and GH3 keyboard are the same, despite the sample variations.
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