Just curious what did you end up picking?

How do u like the piano? mine is coming shortly :D

Great thanks. I wondered where it came from.

Is it the one He tested the comepetition grand with?

I've played both The 901 is very pure sounding, but I preferred the sound of the 701 which to me had more warmth and ambience. Of course you would just have to try them for yourself. Both are excellent instruments. If I was serious about buying one, I would have to spend more time with each.

I used to love a piece by Rubenstein - Romance in A Flat, or was it Romance in a flat?

I just played CA701, CLP775 and CLP 785 today... Tried to keep the settings similar (default CFX / SK-EX) as main piano "voice", volume around 4,1 dots (from 10, I think, but since I kept it the same, does not play a role much. I suspect). I warmed up on CLP745 a bit, but found it lacking something - action was soft, felt like playing a computer keyboard. Sound pretty fine, but still... I felt like it played on something it could never deliver. So I just turned around on my chair and went for CLP775, which I thought I will buy, since they have it currently on great discount, and man was I disappointed here. 1. CLP775 has so hard action that I was actually relieved to be able to step away from it. Played some romantic tunes, then switched to Bugatti Step by Jaroslav Jezek and it was hell itself - the piece has only like 3 minutes playtime, but I was sweating by the end, hands hurting a bit. Sound was great, it was joy to listen to. CFX sounds top notch and great with headphones (not so much without, I guess the binaural sampling does play a role here), but the playing itself was a literal workout. Someone might like to wrestle the music from the piano, for me, this was more of a torture. Also, the poor sound without headphones might be due to poor placing in the shop (badly set up spacing between piano´s / room set up stupidly). 2. CLP785 - quite a step up from 775. Easier to play, still offers some "resistance" (diminished thanks to counterweights) but not even close to the 775. Played the same music samples of mine, this one sounds the same as 775 - I could not hear the difference at all in the basic CFX voice, but take this with a grain of salt - see above. It did have noticeably greater sound without headphones though. Very enjoyable, I could get used to it, as it reminded me of an old Petrof grand piano I was forced to play on concerts when I was attending the arts school as a boy. But the price tag is not enjoyable so much. Ouch... 3. CA701 - now this one has stolen a show for me today. I had to travel to another shop in Prague to get to play it, but man was it worth it. I could not take my hands off of it, it just invited me to play again and again (after more than half an hour with the piano, I felt sorry for the guitar guy appointed to watch over me, he was clearly getting bored while I just had to try to improvise something new yet, twiddling some melodies with right hand only etc... :D ) This was just a great experience, if you can, definitely try to find a shop where this one can be played next to CLP785. Overall, top sampling with SK-EX (both concert and competition), key action nice and subtle, responding on every whim and truly great with or without headphones. If you are a beginner, I would advice not to pick CLP775. You need to first develop and train muscles in your hands / forearms and that action is way too hard for beginners imo. CA701 is much more gentle in this way and has nicer soundpack included too. CLP745 might be also good in action terms, but I found it lacking in the sound - and for me, sound is more important here, since CLP745 felt even softer than CA701. I still would like to play CA901 somewhere, but I have not found a shop here that would have it on stand yet. Hope this helps - if anyone has some other experiences, feel free to add them here, I am also looking for some inputs ;o) . Thanks in advance.

@@Pracification Wow THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!! I really appreciate it, thank for taking the time to write such a thorough reply. Sadly, I wrote my comment 3 weeks go and now I just bought the CLP 775, just 3 days ago. I'm waiting for the delivery which will take a couple of weeks or so. If I'd read your comment before buying I would have got the 701, But I'll also keep my (Very old ) acoustic. I'm not really a beginner, you can see me practice here ( kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mtRidsxovd7NnGw.html ). The thing is I settled in a place with insane humidity rate and that makes it hard to take care of an acoustic which is why I decided to go digital. I hope I won't be disappointed with the 775, since I don't need the same kind of training as a beginner. Thanks again my friend, it's great to realize kind, helpful people still exist

@@_Francis You are welcome :o) CLP-775 is great nevertheless, and if you can bear the hard action, it will serve you just as well. As a side note, I spoke with my father yesterday and he did some testing for me on my old accoustic upright I played my whole childhood on (some 100-ish years old Roessler). The downweight on C is around 73g, CA701 has according to information in links below 53g, whereas CLP-775 has 85+g on C. azpianonews.blogspot.com/2018/05/kawai-digital-pianos-review-report.html azpianonews.blogspot.com/2017/09/yamaha-clp675-clp685-review-comparison-digital-piano-low-price-clavinova.html So that was definitely the difference I felt while playing them.

​@_Francis you picked CLP 775 because somethiong in you was telling you you want it, just enjopy it. I'm sure it is a good piano.

CA401 and CA501 are useless models because their price is very close to CA701, but with inferior feats and different keyboard. If you're very strict with budget get a CN301(I own one) which has a good sound but the keyboard is too soft, but if you're serious about learning and playing then don't go for anything below CA701

@@dominic6055 Thanks! I just got CA701. My conclusions were similar.

​@@dominic6055 not agreeing my friend, there is quite a difference between the feel of the 701/901 and the 501... the 701/901 is very light....Me personally I prefer the feel of the 501....its just a bit heavier....and you have more controle of the let off.....

I don't think higher prices means bigger money for manufacturers, because higher is the cost of production(material,labour,logistics). While with DPs the companies can scale production much cheaply and have a lot better profit margins. Here in Europe there is no sane reason for any type of pianist to buy an upright acoustic, either you buy a quality grand piano or you buy a DP. Most pianists live in apartments and have noise and space restrictions, so the need of a DP is a must for any pianist, even those that own an expensive grand piano they are more and more prone to buy a DP as a complementary tool. A quality DP like the CA series is better than any upright piano out there, I believe from the next decade even grand pianos will go into crisis because DP only get better, they are more flexible, they are always perfectly tuned and have the possibility of improving a lot with mechanics and playability.

Digitals are getting very good.

@@JoeLinux2000 wait for AI to make people preferring a digital over an acoustic, for many reasons...

Lol ok

Only through computer screen , in live the acoustic piano MUCH richer and natural. But, for home use Digital is moooore practical.

You mean in real life or in the videos on the pianos? Because in the videos it is of course just line out using samples that have been recorded from the real things, so then it's only logical that it sounds the same. But yeah, they've been getting a lot better