Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Yamaha Clavinova CLP-270 Personal Review

Hi everyone,
I just had my clp-270 for over 2 weeks now and tough I would share with you my impression of the piano and my pros and cons briefly.

Sound:
Well, the sound is amazing due to 2 main things. First, the speaker quality is phenomenal, at maximum volume its actually louder than a real piano, and the dynamic curve (with the pressure of the fingers) is quite similar to a real one if you set it up to around 75% of the max volume. Second, the iAFC mics that will even make a reverb out of your voice, the result of this is amazing staccatos. By default the iAFC spacial resonance is set to 10, I would recommend to setting it up around 40-50. At the same time the iAFC string resonance when using the pedal and playing high notes is not perfect (you can hear a bit of looping). It is too loud by default and I would recommend bring it down from 98 to somewhere around 75-80.
The sympathetic string resonance work without the pedal: you can silently press a cluster and attacking it in the octave above or bellow will make the pressed strings vibrate. You can adjust the amount of sympathetic resonance.
There is also Damper pedal depth you can adjust, I would recommend setting it down from 5 to 4.
The only other con I have against the sound is the looping you may hear if you play very loud with the pedal and than repeat the same chord softly. But with the right setting of resonance you can make it very hard to hear. Still, its not perfect. Sometimes, specialy if your playing at low volume, it feels like another dynamic layer could have been added before the loudest one, but that is really not something that's bothering me atm.

Touch/pedals:
I find the touch really amazing, more than I did when trying it at the music store.It hard to say how real or not it is, with some many different touch on acoustic pianos anyway. The only thing I find missing is the feeling of the string vibrating against the hammer, but you do have the release samples.
The half pedal works well and you can set-up the half point to have it just like your used to on your acoustic piano.

I didnt try all the midi options yet.

Over all, Im quite pleased with the Clavinova clp-270 and If your looking into a digital piano its worth a good look!

sound: 9/10 Good work on the resonances effects, amazing speakers, samples are amazing but its possible to hear some looping once in a while.

Price paid: 3200 can + taxes = around 3900$

touch:10/10 I dont know any better digital keyboard that has a better touch, and I did try a Kawai at 5000$ that I liked less.

thanks for the review! i would get something like this or better in a few years.

Sounds like a very nice piano. Congratulations, and thanks for posting the review.

What do you think about the noise of a hammer when you press on the keys starting somewhere on the upper part of the keyboard? It differs from the rest of the keys. It's why i'm not bought the clp270. And I have a kawaiCa71 now.

yeah thanks for the review i'm in the process of buying a piano but i was going for the clp240 but now i want the clp270 when will it ever stop lol.

Seriously I've never noticed it, I think its fine. Most of the time I play at the volume of a real piano so Its almost inaudible.

The speakers would be the biggest difference between both models. Wait and get the 270, the extra volume/speaker size is needed if you want it to sound like a real piano. iAfc, the graduated pedal and string resonances are worth it too.

Is the price difference that huge?

You set it to 75% volume?!? Your neighbours must love you. I've got a CLP170 (almost identical to the CLP270) and never have it more than 25%. Maybe I'm missing out

Xill, thanks for that detailed review, which is the first I've seen that talks about those settings.

75% is about the volume of a real grand. I play around 45-50% at night and 75% during day; I dont think it bothers them at all but Im just playing around 2 hours a day atm.

Studio-quality headphones will let you hear the true quality of a DP's included sounds and are helpful for late-night playing. The difference will be particularly noticeable in the bass region. The CLP's woofers are too small.

Sennheiser's HD580's are comfortable for extended playing and are still sometimes available on eBay for $169.