🎹Yamaha vs Roland | Yamaha YDP-184 vs Roland HP-702 | Which Piano is Right for You?🎹

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1:02 - Yamaha Playing Demo
1:48 - Roland Playing Demo
2:41 - Video Overview
6:02 - Roland Piano Sound Review
14:20 - Roland E-Piano Piano and other sounds
16:06 - Yamaha Piano Sound
22:42 - Yamaha Other Piano Sounds
27:49 - Speaker Comparison
34:10 - Piano Action Review
40:22 - Piano Features Review
Hello and welcome to the Merriam Pianos RUclips channel! We’re back with another piano shootout video for you here as we compare the Yamaha YDP-184 and the Roland HP-702.
Both of these instruments are upper mid-range level home digital pianos, priced similarly, and ultimately compete very well against one another.
Background
Many consumer goods, especially household items like TVs or dishwashers, offer the shopper an absolute plethora of options at just about every price point.
When it comes to home digital pianos in and around the $3,000 range and above, the selection starts to lean out quite significantly, and you’re often left with about 2 or 3 models to choose from.
The Yamaha YDP-184 and the Roland HP-702 are two such options right above the $3,000 price point, and they’re competing for the exact same customer, which is someone seeking a nice instrument with a full tone and solid action, without venturing into the territory of the top-end part of the market.
Despite the similar price and appearance, these two pianos actually have very different musical experiences to offer. Let’s start by comparing the sound engines.
Sound
A big tone difference between Roland’s and Yamaha’s, in general, is that Roland tends to produce a more Steinway-Esque tone with a strong mid-range presence, while digital pianos of course sound like their acoustic pianos - brighter with more high frequencies.
The HP702 certainly attests to this, especially in the mid-range, but the treble also has the same shimmer you’ll hear in a NY Steinway. The timbre also happens to be very dynamic as you change your level of expression as a player.
The HP702 also has Piano Designer built-in, meaning you can go in and customize the sound to your own liking with a variety of parameters. The HP702 also happens to offer full polyphony on some piano tones by virtue of the fact that the piano sound engine is fully modelled as opposed to sampled.
Moving into other sounds, we get into the standard Roland SuperNATURAL sound engine, which is sample-based. The electric pianos sound great as do the strings/pads, and plus there’s also a wide selection of other sounds with over 300 in total. The core focus is definitely acoustic pianos, e pianos, and strings/pads.
Moving over to the 184, there’s much more of a V curve frequency-wise with more pronounced upper harmonics, as is the case with their acoustic pianos. There are also more lower-mids here as well.
There’s a good amount of tonal variation here as well, but it is less dynamic overall - it’s much easier to play quietly on the 702 than the 184.
The 184 is using a sample-based engine built off their CFX concert grand, with some additional resonance engines overtop. It also has a built-in sound editor with Yamaha’s Piano Room feature, so you can also edit quite a few parameters.
Like the 702, there’s a host of acoustic piano patches here on the 184, as well as e pianos, strings/pads and others, but the 702 definitely has a wider selection of tones.
When it comes to the speakers, the 184 has a pair of 30-watt speakers, compared to a pair of 16-watt speakers on the 702, suggesting that the 184 should blow the 702 away in terms of sheer power.
In practice, due to some clever engineering, the HP702 sounds just as powerful.
Action
The touch between these two pianos happens to also be quite different, even on paper. The HP702 has Roland’s PHA4 action with a triple sensor, escapement and textures on the keytops. The YDP183 has Yamaha’s GH3 action with a triple sensor and textures, but no escapement.
Does escapement matter? If you’re a finesse player and will be playing in the lower dynamic ranges fairly frequently, then yes - escapement does add a level of control. Other than that, there’s not really a huge difference to be felt here due to the escapement.
The PHA4 action is weighted pretty much exactly the same as a baby grand, and it’s a well-built action with good durability.
The GH3 action feels a little bit shallower, but the textures on the keys are a little bit more noticeable which is a great thing.
Other Features/Connectivity
The HP702 offers Bluetooth MIDI and Audio, while the YDP184 does not offer any Bluetooth at this point. Both companies make great apps so we would recommend checking those out.