I'm looking for a digital piano, nothing too fancy, but something that mimics the real thing. I have tried out the CLP 120, but have seen the YDP 223 online for a couple hundred dollars less than I can get the CLP 120 for. Has anyone tried the YDP 223? How does it compare to the CLP 120? Any comments you have on either type will be helpful!

Thanks!

These user manuals can be downloaded at the Yamaha site. IMO, these two appear identical in every smallest detail. Probably the difference is the type of dealer, some are piano stores and some are otherwise. I'm not certain, but I think the CLP warranty term may be longer.

Try it like car prices. Yamaha seems to control the prices that can be advertised, so all public prices are the same, and there wont be any online mention at all of CLP (in the US). Try phoning two or three online dealers, and ask their "best" YDP price, including shipping, then use that quote to negotiate the local CLP price.

Lightnin,

Thanks for the quick response. I have an additional question if you don't mind... are there any other pianos in this general range that you might recommend I look at? Again, I don't need all the bells and whistles - just a good sounding, decently priced digital.

Thanks!

Well, if cost is the issue, there are the portable stage pianos, like the Yamaha P90, P120, P250. These are very much the same thing, but just without the wood furniture. However the furniture may be a feature you want. All three of these are actually slightly better pianos in one small detail, in that these three are like the better CLP130 model, which has dynamic sampling (each key can respond with three recorded sounds, for soft, medium, loud playing). The CLP120 instead has one sample for all cases. Compare the sound of a CLP120 and CLP130 for that difference.

I have a P90 ($1000), and like it a lot. It has no speakers at all, so it needs external speakers, or headphones or both. I use small Yamaha powered speakers, much like decent grade computer speakers, $120 class, stereo side speakers and a small 40 watt subwoofer. Certainly there are better speakers, but these are fine for me at home, and are as good as in the furniture models I think. Decent speakers are pretty important because piano sound can go very low in bass frequency.

The P120 is surely the most popular of these portables. It has all the piano electronics, but as a portable (40 pounds), it has smallish speakers. For best sound, I think you'd like better external speakers with it too, but which can be added any time later. The P120 ($1200) compares to the CLP130, except for the wood furniture, and the P120 has a smaller sound system... marginally small.

The P250 has lots more bells and whistles (a few hundred extra voices like drums and horns), and more speaker, and is said to have a very slightly better piano sound. Also weighs 71 pounds, not really so portable. The P250 compares very closely to the PF500, except for furniture.

There is also a P60 ($750) but it has only 32 note polyphony, and it compares very closely to the YDP113 or CLP115 in that regard. If you use the sustain pedal with chords, the common opinion is that we need 64 note polyphony, so that some of the sustained notes dont drop out.

Various musical instrument stores have these, and the best bet to see one may be a Guitar Center store, or similar. More pro audio, whereas the piano stores probably have the CLP.

All the models and all the specs are at the www.yamaha.com site. The manuals are under the Service menu there, then Manual Library link. Enter the model number of interest to locate the manual. You can learn a lot from manuals, how they are actually used.

I would also mention that the P250 has 128 note polyphony which isn't neceesarily very important if you are just playing a piano voice, but when you start to layer voices, note stealing can be very obvious with anything less.

For example, common layerings are piano and strings or piano and synth pad. Having multiple instruments playing at the same time will use more poly per note.

Rodney