Topic: Yamaha Clavinove experience tour

[Kenneve]

Last night I attended the Yamaha Clavinova Experience Tour – Coventry, which was being staged to demonstrate  the Clavinova CVP800 series pianos. The stars of the show were Peter Baartmans and Susan Albers, both world class musicians and plus Susan's outstanding vocal ability.
The show was truly excellent in most respects, but I have to say I came away a little disappointed, regarding the content of the show.

Both the CVP805 and the CVP809 were on stage and I had expected the performance to concentrate on demonstrating  a selection of the wide range of voices/styles available, via various songs etc.
In the event the vast majority of the music was based around the truly excellent piano voices, plus the odd departure to the Classical/hammond organ and a clarinet voice. It would have useful to hear a wider range of voices, ie the brass section didn't feature, or many others sections

Now I'm not sure who Yamaha regard as the target audience, certainly I expect there were a few there, simply to enjoy a free concert. Others were there as possible future customers. I was there as a 805 owner, hoping to learn more about the instrument's capability.

I did find it interesting to note that, when played through additional external amplification, there was absolutely no difference in sound, between the two models, which to my mind was further justification for my decision to purchase the lower model. (who am I kidding, I couldn't afford the 809 anyway!)

I understand that 1-hour personal experience slots will be available shortly at local dealers, which I guess would go some way to bridging the gap, nevertheless it would have nice to have had a slightly wider range of voices and with great respect to Susan, a little less vocals, given the limited time available. However my congratulations to all concerned for an excellent show.

[musicmanrgd]

I would loved to have been able to get to one of these concerts, but the nearest to me is around 130 miles away and wasn’t possible (we seem to have been forgotten here in Suffolk/Norfolk) however I am glad you mostly enjoyed the show, maybe you were expecting a demonstration rather than a concert. I play a CVP709 regularly at our church and agree these are brilliant instruments I don’t think I would be able to persuade them to upgrade to a 809 though.

[mikf]

It’s likely that the target market for CVPs are mostly piano players who want to play piano over accompaniment, and that may be why the show was biased towards that. 
I think the piano samples are the same in both these 800 series models, and the big jump in cost comes from the better action in the top model, and a slightly different cabinet design.  Was the same when I bought the 705. I am a piano player but still thought the action in the 705 was quite adequate, and everything else seemed about the same. I would interested to compare the piano sound between 700 series and 800 series though. In my view the Yamaha grand piano sample in the 705 is excellent, but the Bosendorfer sample is not so great.
Mike