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0:00 - Intro
0:46 - Opening Playing Demo on LX706
1:12 - Video Overview
3:17 - Roland LX Line-Up
4:20 - Roland Piano Modelling
6:12 Roland Grand Piano Models
6:56 - Roland "European Grand" Piano Demo
9:27 - Roland "American Grand" Piano Demo
12:04 - Dynamics on the LX706
13:32 - Roland Piano Designer
14:15 Roland LX706 "My Stage" Features
17:25 Piano Tone Edit Features
19:14 Roland Piano Samples
22:14 General Midi 2 Sound Bank
23:17 - Sound Specs
23:27 - Piano Action Review
30:46 Piano Action Specs
30:57 - Piano Features Review
33:35 - Piano Features Specs
33:54 - Outro
Hi and welcome to the Merriam Pianos KZfaq channel. We’re back with another digital piano review today as we tackle the middle child of Roland’s flagship LX line with the LX-706.
Roland’s LX line is one of the top home digital pianos lines available on the market today, and we’ll be covering exactly how the LX706 differentiates itself from its younger and older siblings - the LX705 and LX708.
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Overview
When we took our most recent look at Roland’s LX line, we actually skipped over the LX706. This wasn’t meant as any type of slight towards the 706 but was simply a reflection of the feedback we were getting from our customers in that the 706 occupies that classic ‘awkward middle child’ position.
At the time, there wasn’t much of a price jump from the 706 to the 708, for many people, if they were already going to bypass the 705, it made sense to jump right to the 708.
At the filming of this video, we’re now almost halfway into 2022 and experiencing an era of extreme inflation worldwide. As such, prices are increasing across the board and the cost of 708 is now essentially in the baby grand territory, with the 706 priced around where the 708 was not all that long ago.
Piano Modeling
The LX706 is equipped with Roland’s top sound engine, referred to as their PureAcoustic engine. This is a fully modeled sound engine, meaning the tone is generated in real-time via a series of algorithms instead of a pre-recorded sample.
Piano Sound
The PureAcoustic engine features two main grand piano tones - European Grand and American Grand - and while Roland doesn’t specify which pianos were used as the inspiration for these tones, we suspect they would have been a NY Steinway and a Hamburg Steinway.
The American sound is a little more open and less blended than the European tone, which sounds warmer between the two sounds.
Roland has greatly improved the dynamism with this new engine, as this was a little bit of a perceived weakness in the past.
There’s a massive amount of editing potential for the piano tone here as Roland essentially gives you full access to the algorithm. For quick editing, there’s Roland My Stage feature which is essentially an array of presets configured, each with its own distinct character.
One layer deeper, and you can start to edit specific things yourself, such as ambience, key touch, brilliance, master tuning, temperament and hammer response.
Finally, we have the deepest layer, and Roland has called this Piano Tone Edit. Here you can edit single note characteristics such as volume or tuning, soft-pedal manipulation, soundboard type, cabinet resonance, etc. The sheer capacity to create your own piano tone here is incredible, and it’s super easy to save your own presets.
Beyond the two grand piano sounds (which also have limitless polyphony by the way), there’s a total of 324 onboard tones, and non-acoustic piano tones still have a strong 256 notes worth of polyphony.
The classic Roland electric pianos are all present and sound fantastic, the strings are lush, and the organs are great too. In general, the sounds are very convincing across the board.
Action
Like the 708, the 706 also uses Roland’s most advanced action - the Hybrid Grand Keyboard - and these are the only two pianos in their lineup currently receiving this action. The 705 for example receives the PHA50 action.
What makes the Grand Hybrid action better is the pivot length - from the front of the white keys all the way to the back inside the cabinet, this action features a 26cm key length. This is in line with many 6-foot grand piano actions in terms of their pivot length and is slightly longer than Kawai’s Grand Feel III action.