Yamaha CLP370 Reviews

“In my opinion, the CLP370 is without doubt the best sounding instrument of them all”

Ive had 3 piano`s in all…. Casio Celviano..a Roland (all new ) and now of course this very beautiful CLP370 Clavinova.

In my opinion, the CLP370 is without doubt the best sounding instrument of them all. It sounds and feels like an acoustic grand piano, or as near to it as is possible, and of course, nowhere near the price of a grand, and does not take up anything like the room.

For me, it is ideal,it looks good,feels good, and most of all sounds really lovely. I bought it from: “Music is Life Christchurch Rd Bournemouth”. Probably could have got it a bit cheaper on line, but then I would have had the hassle of carting it upstairs to my flat and then assembling it, this was all done for me and of course the shop is just down the road in case of problems.

Yamaha`s back up is good too, with piano/internet connections streaming piano music through the piano, and their musicsoft program also piano lessons, its a really good all round deal. There are no negative points at this stage, I just dont have any. For the last couple of months (since I bought it) I play it every day. Well, what more can I say….Dave.

Review by Dave Dawson, Christchurch, Dorset, UK

 

“These are customer reviews from actual owners of this piano.
The most recent review is at the top of this page “, Graham Howard, Piano Advisor

Send me an email if you have any questions or need advice: grahamhoward@ukpianos.co.uk
Or call 020 8367 5107

 

2) “I have had it only for a few days yet, but am very satisfied so far”

I have now bought a piano. Last week I went to Justmusic in Munich and
bought a Yamaha Clavinova CLP-370 Rosewood. Justmusic were very easy to deal
with, and as they had the piano on stock they could deliver already the next
day.

What made me decide for the 370 was that when I tested the dfferent pianos
in the store I really thought that the difference in feeling and musicality
as I moved from the CLP-320 to the 330, then to the 340 and finally to the
370 was worth the difference in price. I also tried a Kawai and a Roland but
they did not feel as “real” as the Yamahas. Reading your rankings of pianos
in different price categories led me to believe that you thought the 370 was
a good piano in its price category, which you also confirmed when I asked
specifically about that. In general, your website and book about digital
pianos were not only helpful from a practical point of view, but
also very inspiring for someone who has not owned a digital piano before!

I have had it only for a few days yet, but am very satisfied so far. I
mostly use headphones as I live in a rather small and not very soundproof
flat (a temporary flat used during the working week mostly – I bought the
370 as a substitute for an upright I have back home). I very much appreciate
the realistic feeling of the piano keys and the possibility to adjust the
sound and the touch. Now the trick is only to make the time for playing and
practicing as much as I want…

Review by Stefan, Munich, Germany

 

3) “I went with the 370 and am very happy with my choice”

My decision was between the 340 and the 370.   I tried to convince myself
the 370 was not worth the price difference, yet the touch of the 370 just
felt better to me.  The action of the keys on the 370 just seems better to
me.  With the 370 I felt I had better control over the dynamics.  In
addition, the sound on the 370 seems a little fuller to me.  Ultimately,
after two sessions comparing the two models, I went with the 370 and am very
happy with my choice.

I bought it at our local store, Kneifel (Geneva, Switzerland), which
delivered it fully assembled yesterday.

There is only one small detail that might not be correct, and this would be
the responsibility of the store to fix.  The middle pedal does not work.
According to the owner’s manual, it should sustain the first note hit.  In
fact, it does not sustain any note, ever, at all.  I might contact the store
about this, though it seems almost silly, as I have never used a middle
pedal before and don’t think I’ve ever seen a composition that calls for it.
If this is something easy to fix, with the piano fully assembled, I might
try doing it myself.

Thank you, Graham, for all your advice.  It was a big help in learning what
to look for in a digital piano and helping me choose.

Review by Peter Cattan, Geneva, Switzerland

 

4) “It looks like a piano, it sounds like a piano, it plays like a piano”

This summer I had to sell my old piano of 55 years for the usual reasons
that affect the old. For family reasons I was unable to go to hear any
digital pianos before purchase so I had to make do with internet samples and
Howard advice. In spite of caveats about escapement action and wooden keys,
I chose the Yamaha CLP370 which I bought it from Bonners of Eastbourne who
offer delivery and assembly. They proved a pleasant firm to deal with but in
the event only a solitary driver came and I can attest that the keyboard
unit really is heavy!

How does it rate as a piano? First, the tone. You can get a score of
varieties of acceptable piano tone, each subtly different, which you can
perhaps try to match to your repertoire — at any rate, you can have a
change occasionally. These piano tones are quite convincing but the overall
sound is rather small-scale — as when listening to a good quality radio. A
manufacturer can sample real piano tone with amazing skill but unless the
reproduction chain is of the same standard it is rather wasted.

This instrument does wonders with two modest loudspeakers under the
keyboard but it is not quite enough. A traditional mechanical piano is linked
acoustically to the room by a comparatively enormous area of soundboard and
indeed casework. On this instrument one gets really splendid results from
professional headphones, however, and I’m sure a really large external
loudspeaker with a good amplifier would work wonders.

Now the touch. The feel may not be totally convincing but it is certainly
sufficiently piano-like to do your technique no harm at all. It is perfectly
regular — if your runs sound uneven, it’s your fault! The let-down — and I
suspect this will apply to other digital pianos — is that there is nothing
to feel by way of change under the fingers, as there would be on a
mechanical piano, when you apply either the sustaining or the soft pedal.
Indeed the soft-pedal seems to have virtually no effect on the tone at all.
(It would have been an elegant refinement to have linked this to the touch
control to give an easier motion reminiscent of the advanced hammer position
on upright pianos.)

Now for the extras. Apart from piano tones there are two organs (the third
pedal earns its keep for pedal points), two harpsichords, and the usual list
of suspects by way of exotica – vibraphone etc . I have got more than I want
at the moment with computer and internet connections but they can not be
added later and I did not want to spoil the ship for a ha-p’th of tar.

The recording and metronome arrangements are quite splendid and the controls
in general don’t take up too much room, are not too distracting, and are
clear enough in use. All sorts of adjustments are possible by means of these
controls (see quite clearly printed manual) but other tweaking is impossible.
It means, of course, that when there are one or two notes that one doesn’t like
the sound of there is nothing that can be done. This is hard on someone who’s
always tuned and regulated his own piano but it does save a lot of work and
it means you can try different temperaments without a vast amount of hassle.

In fine, it looks like a piano, it sounds like a piano, it plays like a piano, and I
am enjoying it enormously.

Review by Jim West, UK

 

5) “Nothing prepared me for the quality of the sound – absolutely, staggeringly wonderful”

On mostly Graham Howard’s advice, I aimed high and went for a CLP340 from
Gear4music at a price of £1473. Two days later (two days before Christmas) I got
an email from them saying ‘Oops – we don’t actually have one in stock after all,
can you wait two weeks for the next batch to arrive?’ Not keen to do that, I
accepted their cunning alternative offer (with a big apology, which I accepted
gratefully) which was a CLP370 for £1573 including delivery, a stool and some
headphones. I might be wrong, but that seemed a great offer, especially since I
was away for Christmas anyway.

The piano arrived yesterday and although there were one or two technical hitches
(it wouldn’t fit up the stairs to my flat in its box, so the fedex people left
it at the bottom and drove away) I had it assembled within an hour or so.
Nothing prepared me for the quality of the sound – absolutely, staggeringly
wonderful. And that’s just playing it straight, as a piano. It’s capabilities
simply blow me away and it feels worth (more than) every penny.
So, a happy customer. And yes, your book was pretty useful for someone with no
knowledge whatsoever of digital pianos.

Review by Benjamin Binns

 

6) “The ease of use of the buttons on the panel in front of you swung it in favour of the Yamaha”

Hi Graham,
We bought a Yamaha CLP370, after much deliberation!
The top of the range Classenti came close, but the ease of use of the buttons on the panel in front of you swung it in favour of the Yamaha. That, plus the brand name and our satisfaction with a Yamaha keyboard we have had for 17 years helped the desicion. I have bought it from a local piano shop who gave me a reasonable discount, slightly more than I could have bought it from UK Pianos, but has the advantage of being local so we could try it out first. (We came close to buying a real piano!)

Thanks for your help – your book on digital pianos was useful.

Review by Alan Tarbuck

 

7) “Two notes have an unpleasant distortion effect”

All sorts of adjustments are possible by means of these controls (see quite clearly printed manual) but other tweaking is impossible.
It means, of course, that when there are one or two notes that one doesn’t like the sound of there is nothing that can be done. This is hard on someone who’s always tuned and regulated his own piano but it does save a lot of work and it means you can try different temperaments without a vast amount of hassle.

At that early stage I wasn’t quite sure exactly what I was hearing but clearly there was something sounding wrong somewhere. There were one or two other things not right which were fairly easily settled over the telephone with the music shop, but their head piano man was rather dismissive about my concerns about the bad notes. Here is what seems to be the problem.

The note A in the treble (A = 440), and to some extent its two immediate neighbours, has an unpleasant distortion effect — a sort of nasal twang. The same thing occurs the octave above and the fifth above that. A scale passage played through these notes has them sticking out like sore thumbs. This is presumably some resonant effect in the amplifiers and/or the speakers: it applies to all permutations of piano tone but is not evident when playing through headphones. (If you play very quietly there is no problem but it all sounds terribly woolly and the characteristic tone of course is lost.)

I can quite imagine it happening with a cheap instrument but at this price it is desperately disappointing.

Review by Carl

 

8) “Has Yamaha’s quality gone down since they moved to Indonesia?”

At long last I’m able to give a report about my CLP 370. The delay has partly been because
I had a bad cold and wanted to make sure that there was nothing wrong with my ears and
particularly because I have been making a large number of experiments.

When it became apparent that the bad tone on certain notes I mentioned in my review was
too much to put up with, I got in touch in the first instance with the dealer.
They did not want to be involved with this problem and referred me to Yamaha.

I have been using the time between other matters to consult a couple of friends, one a
harpsichord builder and the other a piano technician with a business in Wales. Neither
has any particular expertise with digital pianos and could only guess at the cause of the
sounds that were bothering me.

I have described these effects in previous communications something like this:

The note A in the treble (‘tuning A’), and to some extent its two immediate neighbours,
have an unpleasant distortion effect — harsher than their fellows with a sort of nasal
twang. The same thing occurs to a much greater degree the octave above and the fifth
above that. (Dusty Miller said he found top E and F strident on a piano in the showroom.)
Any passage involving these notes has them sticking out like sore thumbs and chords are
subtly spoilt. This is presumably due to some resonant effect centred in 440Hz and its
first and second harmonics in the amplifiers and/or the speakers: it applies to all the
various permutations of piano tone on offer but is not so evident when playing through
headphones — other voices seem unaffected. (If you play very quietly there is no problem
but it all sounds terribly woolly and the characteristic sampled grand piano tone of
course is lost.)

My friends suggested that this might in fact be a feature of the sampling but of course I
don’t can not be sure of that.

One would hope that a good piano would have a nice creamy tone in the treble so that the
player could aspire to producing the famous ‘row-of-pearls’ tone. Unfortunately some of
the notes are a bit sour-creamy. You have to play with the volume set very quietly indeed
to avoid this effect and then the tone lacks all character..

When I first received the piano I wrote on a website but I was very pleased with its
playing qualities but that I did miss the ability to do something about individual notes
that were not quite right — my piano technician friend like me was itching to get his
toolbox open. It has taken me a while to sort out what is wrong I might mention that I’m
an experienced amateur tuner and long-time recording engineer, so I do know bad notes
when I meet them.

After a fortnight they asked if their technical expert could phone me. This he duly did
and endeavoured to make a diagnosis down the telephone. He pinged away at an instrument
his end and I pinged away at mine. It was his opinion, as far as I can gather, that all
was within their usual parameters and that nothing could be done.

I continued to make experiments first of all to see if some combination of reverberation
controls and various chorus effects could make things any better. This at first seem
promising but proved a dead end. I then spent many a day trying to blend the various
different types of piano tone together in different proportions (a procedure described in
the manual). Frankly no luck. Cure one problem, create another. Incidentally, I found
that repeated experiments without switching the whole piano off in between could cause
the most extraordinary unpleasant effects.

At the end of this unhappy period I was beginning to make serious enquiries about
alternative makes, being prepared to lose a substantial sum of money which I could ill
afford because of the distress this piano was causing me. I have at last, however, found
an arrangement that seems to work. I have taken leads from the output panel (sheer hell
to access for an old man) to a spare hi-fi amplifier mounted behind the music desk and
connected to a pair of old loudspeakers along the bottom rail above the pedals. The
amplifier has to be on full and the marker on the master volume control on the piano must
not be above the E in MASTER. I have had this arrangement for two or three days now and
think I can live with it – an enormous relief.

I don’t know if all this has anything to do with construction having been moved to
Indonesia, but it is terribly disappointing. The two people I mentioned in my letter to
Yamaha had previously had a good opinion of the Clavinova but I’m afraid it has been
tarnished.

I really do not think I ought to leave my enthusiastic review on your website without a
caveat about the tone. When I wrote it I had been a stranger to the piano for quite a
while and was so delighted with the feel of the instrument playing old friends that I was
inclined to gush.

With very best wishes,

Review by John, UK