The Best In Home Digital Piano to Learn On?! Yamaha CLP-725 vs Kawai CN201

Why didn’t they make the CN201 with 256 polyphony :/

Who can help me choose between Yamaha Clavinova CLP 725 and Kawai CN 201? (both have about the same price in Europe). The dealer has recommended Kawai CN 201. I have played on both and find the Kawai keyboard a bit "springy" and unfamiliar. I liked Yamaha better in this respect, it's more like an acoustic piano, or am I wrong? It really seems like Ted doesn't like Yamaha. But is it perhaps more suitable for me after all?

I only play classical music, am no longer a beginner and am looking for an instrument to practise on, partly with headphones in a small flat. The sound and keyboard should be similar to an acoustic piano and it shouldn't be very big. All other electronic features are not important to me.
Any advice would be appreciated, thank you!

Whats that oldschool yamaha in the back?

I think you should have played the same song for both pianos. It was much harder to judge because I more liked the grand piano piece played on the Yamaha, even though I've been leaning towards a Kawai.

What about cn201 vs P515?

Both Kawai CN201 and Yamaha CLP 725 has the same 40 watts, that comment was a little biased against Yamaha. Kawai cabinet is a little bigger, but it only has 192 polyphony versus 256 on the Yamaha, a bigger cabinet doesn´t mean a better digital piano. Yes, I agree the Yamaha CLP-725 is a glorified YDP, but it is not that much more expensive. It has better action, VRM, Binaural sample and a little extra features. Kawai is newer, has a better interface in the console and a few extra sounds you may never use. I think both pianos are will positioned as they are and very decent entry level products. I would pick a CLP 725 over YDP-165 everytime. The only reason to buy a YDP is a tight budget. Kawai and Yamaha are very similar products and the choice will be on what features are more important to you. Still I give this review a thumbs up as I love to listen Ted play.

Ted: please keep telling us exactly what your honest thoughts are on these pianos you are reviewing. Sometimes it feels like Patrick is trying to either be too diplomatic and not say anything negative about any pianos, or even try to soften up what Ted is saying. I'm sure I speak for everyone here: we want honest reviews, don't need to hear that "all of these pianos are great" as that's not a helpful comment.

I prefer the sound of the Yamaha CLP-725 for a simple reason: it has a flat midrange. The Kawai CN201 has a "V"-shape equalization curve applied to the sample. Very simple to check: record Ted playing, open the audio sample in a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), open a parametric equalizer and bell-boost the 1 kHz frequency by 10 dB. Then you will get a sound profile similar to the Yamaha CLP-725 (I just did that test). The CN201 has a crunchy sound similar to Roland pianos because they also give their pianos a "V"-shape EQ curve. Acoustic pianos cannot produce a "V"-shape sound profile, this type of sound can only be produced by digitally manipulating the sample, as Kawai is doing here.

Kawai has 4 different levels of SK-EX recreations: HI, PHI, HI-XL, and SK-EX Rendering. The CN201 uses the PHI (Progressive Harmonic Imaging), which is the second lowest. You have to wait to the SK-EX Rendering engine to get a flatter midrange.

Yamaha offers the same CFX tone generator in their Clavinova line. The differences in a CLP-725 and CLP-785 is in the action, speaker system, and extra features. But they don't give you a lower grade tone generator with a compressed boomy sound profile, like Kawai does.

But regardless of quality of tone generator, the one thing that Kawai should do is this: don't scoop out the midrange, don't give a digital piano a "V"-shape equalization curve sound profile, particularly for people interested in classical music. It is OK for pop pianos, but the CN201 is not a pop piano.

I have played several acoustic Kawai pianos, such as the K15, K200, K500, GL-10, GL-30, GL50, GX2, and they all sound great. So, this issue has nothing to do with the actual acoustic pianos, but with the way the sample is processed, particularly in their lower-grade tone generators.

i was just desperately looking for that comparison. many thanks!

I’ve currently playing the CN25 and it has a great action and nice sound. I’m busy upgrading and my CA701 is on order from Japan. Seems like the CN201 vs CLP725 is a no brainer. Much newer technology with the Kawai. I tried all the top CLP range and prefer the feel of Kawai, but Yamaha top end has more “toys” but not enough to tempt me.