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I remembered reading that and did make that change, between that and the "mellow" mode, it did warm it a bit, but it still wasn't quite what I remembered.

Will do.

I went back to Sam Ash today and A/B'd the CP300 and the FP7 with headphones. My observations from yesterday were repeated today. Again, I noticed a slight difference in the actions. I preferred the FP7 which was a bit heavier although either would be OK (and neither wholly duplicates the feel of an actual acoustic).

Again, the bigger difference was tone. With the headphones, the CP300 was noticeably brighter (especially in the higher octaves). Again, I changed the CP settings to mellow and that helped somewhat. The FP, however, sounder better (fuller, warmer) to me. BTW: I did not notice a problem with CP's G3 key.

The CP300 still wins in overall "feel" because of the feedback you feel in the keys because of the speakers. It's a shame that the FP7 is missing that, but it's probably something I can live without.

At this point, I'm leaning toward the Roland. I do wish it had a better warranty.

I did try the Kawai CE200 again. I am still disappointed by the action. I really expected it to be the closest to an acoustic of all of the DP's because of the wood keys and actual hammers, etc. But, I really didn't find that to be the case. It's a good action, but certainly no better than the Roland or CP.

Hi All-

This is my first time posting on-line but I too am deciding between the Fp-7 and the CP-300 so this discussion is great since I have lots of the same questions(I would like to try the Kawai MP-8II but I cant find one on display). I am just waiting for the NAMM show in a couple of weeks before buying in case some new, incredible perfect DP is unveiled.

My questions is about the other features of the CP-300 versus the FP-7, especially the session partner versus the Yamaha 16 track recorder. There hasnt been much of discussion about the pros/cons of either of these features. In particular, I am not sure how useful the Roland session partner is and how good is their 3 track recorder versus the 16 track Yamaha (do people use the extra 13 tracks. Is a session partner like a band in the box? Is it worth tipping the balance to Roland?

I am a beginning/intermediate pianist, dont gig (although I dream of someday being good enough to) and I really want to be able to play along with recordings especially jazz in order to improve my improvization skills. Are there prerecorded arrangements with bass/drums that can be played with the CP-300? would I need my PC hooked-up? Does anyone ever use the session partner to play standards or are you limited to some precorded tracks. It sounded a little karaoke to me in the store, but I didnt know how to adjust it to be better so perhaps that is unfair.

Also, is the memory key option in the Roland a big advantage? I like the idea of being able to play along with songs through this key, is that something the Yamaha cannot do?

Obviously, sound and touch are the most important to me also but I like them both. I didnt find the Yamaha too bright when I did mellow piano and with a mellow equilization setting but after reading all the posts, I need to recheck this. I tended to like the Roland sound a little more and the Yamaha touch more. It may come down to these other features for me to decide.

Any thoughts are very welcome.

hey guys! =) i'm new here. been reading all your posts and i'm certainly learning a lot. you guys are the real pros! =)
been confused what to buy.. fp7, or kawai es4..
i didn't like cp300 coz it sounded rather synthetic on the middle keys.. while the lower and higher keys are just fine.. but what made me forget cp300 is the weight.. damn heavy..
i usually carry my keyboards and dp's on my way to churches and gigs so i don't think cp300 will satisfy me no matter how good it is.
i also dropped yamaha p140 from my list since it doesn't have any usb ports or floppy drive which i always need in making minus ones..
can someone help me out?
i had korg pa50 and the lowest note was really powerful.. the highest note on the other hand was the best..
i hope either fp7 or kawai es4 has it..

Hi guys,

Whats the difference between Roland's FP-7 and HP 201/203 in terms of sound quality?

I believe that they have the same sound module and hence the sound is the same through headphones. The speakers of the HP203, however, are significantly better than those of the FP-7.

In addition, I believe that the keyboard of the FP-7 has no escapement. There is no clear statement on this by Roland; however, I can clearly feel the escapement on the HP-203 (which I own), but not on the FP-7 (which I subsequently have tried for this point in a music shop).

On the other hand, an advantage of the FP-7 is that it has more options to tweak the sound, such as EQs and the option to adjust the opening angle of a grand piano.

Hope this helps,
Trolls

I actually preferred the feel of the FP-7 to the HP203. Perhaps it was just that I didn't know how to make any adjustments on the HP203 when I was testing it out, but the escapement felt a bit too much for me.

I got one observation with Yamaha from my shopping odyssey. Whenever you want good Yamaha you must pay a premium compared to other brands. I tried top line Yamahas DP and I was stunned, then I checked price tag and walked away. Least expensive great Yamaha was 2000 euros +++. So not surprisingly CP300 costs more, this is I guess is the rule of Yamaha.

I prefer HP201/HP203 sound to FP7 but... I did not try it through headphones or amplifier, so difficult to judge. For me the key feel was better on HP203 than FP7.

All I can say is that FP7 and HP series in some way aim at different class of users in my opinion. So it all depends what you want. More gimmicks and portability? Go for FP7. Better in-box sound, keys and cabinet design? Then HP models are your answer.