Casio AP-710 – REVIEW | 2023 Digital Piano | 6-Speaker Sound

At $2799 internet selling price, the Casio AP-710’s biggest competitor is the Yamaha Clavinova CLP-735 which has an internet discount price of $2899 based on the Yamaha advertised web site price. I mention this because the Yamaha company certainly has a

great name in pianos as they are famous for acoustic upright and grand pianos as well as digital pianos. In fact, the Yamaha name would be more popular than Casio for that reason alone…that they make real pianos and have done so for years.

However, Casio is also a famous company for the millions of high quality digital products that it makes including watches, calculators, cameras, professional and home keyboards, and large line of digital pianos which they’ve been producing for well over 40 years. So when it comes to digital pianos, Casio knows what they are doing and based on my experience with them I believe they offer at least the same if not more overall “bang for the buck” in the their digital pianos in similar price ranges under $3000 than does Yamaha and some of the other brands out there right now.

GRAND PIANO SOUND TECHNOLOGY

The Casio AP-710 has a custom piano sound chip built in with over 12 different acoustic piano sounds including the same high quality sound samples from their more expensive Grand Hybrid digital pianos which start at $4299 price. Those piano sounds come from 3 distinct grand pianos which include the German Steinway Hamburg Concert Grand Piano, the Bosendorfer Viennese Austrian concert grand Piano, and the Bechstein Berlin, Germany concert grand Piano. The Bechstein piano company in Germany, in conjunction with the Casio company, helped to produce the new piano sound samples in the AP-710 including the very impressive European Bechstein 9′ concert grand piano which no other digital piano has.

CASIO AP-710 VS YAMAHA ARIUS & CLAVINOVA SOUND

The competitive Yamaha Clavinova CLP-735 ($2899) offers 2 distinct piano samples from the Japanese Yamaha Concert Grand and the Bosendorfer Austrian concert grand both of which are great pianos. Although I do like the Yamaha sampled acoustic grand  and Bosendorfer sampled grand quite a bit, the Casio Celviano AP-710 Steinway sound, Bosendorfer sound, and Bechstein stereo sampled grand piano sounds are just as pleasing and realistic to my ears and the Steinway & Bechstein grand piano sounds of Germany are at a much higher level of authenticity.

Yamaha does not use a Steinway or Bechstein piano sample because the Steinway and Bechstein grand piano companies are its competition, and instead Yamaha has their own Yamaha grand sampled sound. Also, the Yamaha company coincidentally owns the Bosendorfer grand piano company so that’s why they do not mind putting that piano sound in their digital pianos. Makes sense to me.

So when it comes to the ever important grand piano sound, I like a few different digital piano brands & models but in this price range the AP-710 is unbeatable for their stereo grand piano tone as far as I am concerned especially coming out of the AP-710 with 6 speakers instead of just 2 in the Yamaha Clavinova CLP-735 and Arius YDP-184 (($2399). The Yamaha Arius YDP-184 also only has one grand piano sound sample (Yamaha) whereas the Yamaha CLP-735 has 2 grand piano sound samples and the Casio AP-710 has the 3 separate grand piano sound samples

The Casio AP-710 has 256 notes of polyphony processing power as does the Yamaha CLP-735 and a few other piano brands and models, which is the most polyphony power offered in a sampled sound digital piano. the 256-note polyphony sound chip is more than enough to handle complex musical scores and passages and also allows the player to combine 2 sounds layered together such as piano &strings, etc for an even more beautiful piano playing sound experience.

But one of the things that noticeably separates the Casio AP-710 from the Yamaha CLP-735 and all other vertical cabinet style digital pianos in this price range is the adjustable open top lid and the 6-speaker system. If you look closely at the pictures of the AP-710, you’ll notice that the lid can open and be propped up to allow the piano sound to also come up and out towards the player as opposed to the sound staying more inside the piano like in the Yamaha CLP-735. In fact, the Yamaha internal speaker system only has 2 speakers, although they are slightly larger than the main speakers in the AP-710.

But the AP-710 has 6 total speakers with much better sound dispersion as I mentioned (4 mains and 2 tweeters) along with the lid opening system like a little mini grand piano, so the sound disbursement in the AP-710 is very impressive in its price range and it sounds great based on all my playing experience time on it. If you do not want the top lid to be opened then it can remain flat like it would be regular digital pianos. Of course none of these piano cabinets in this price range or even in higher price ranges for all of the top brands are actual solid core wood or have actual wood veneers. All cabinet surfaces are imitation wood grain over MDF board which is how almost all digital piano cabinets are made these days.

Nevertheless the Casio AP-710 cabinet looks especially attractive with its new textured matte black finish and is sturdy while resisting warping over time and this is true of a lot of home furniture out there made in this way. I have not heard of any negative issues with any digital piano cabinets on any top brands. The Casio AP-710 cabinet has a very nice footprint and really looks like a piano in my opinion

AP-710 KEY ACTION

Key action is very important in a digital piano and in fact is the most important feature in any digital piano in my opinion, followed by piano sound and pedaling. The key action in the AP-710 allows for a more natural piano playing experience with regard to key weight, resistance, response, and overall key movement as compared to other piano key actions. I like the AP-710 key action very much and it also has new upgraded synthetic ivory & ebony keytops which simulate the old grand piano key feel when the keys were made from real elephant ivory and real ebony wood many years ago before those materials were banned from being used on consumer products like pianos. The synthetic ivory and ebony key surfaces also help absorb sweat from the fingers, and that’s a good thing especially if you have sweaty fingers.

As an example, on the Yamaha Arius YDP-184 which is $2399, the key action movement is noticeably heavy and stiff (almost 90 grams of touch/down-weight), especially when playing the keys a bit softer and more lightly. In contrast the Casio AP-710 is 58 grams of static touch-weight. A real top name acoustic grand piano averages around 55 grams of touch-weight when pressing down the key (measured at middle C). 

When I play that Yamaha key action on the Yamaha Arius YDP-184 ($2399), it feels noticeably fatiguing to me on my fingers, wrists, lower arms, etc after awhile of playing and most people, especially beginners/novice players, will be uncomfortable playing it after a period of time. That extra finger force needed to push down the keys on the Yamaha and the extra force pressing against your fingers when the keys come back up simply is not normal or enjoyable for most people based on my experience with these models. The Casio AP-710 just feels so much better when the keys move and allows for much quicker and more natural key action movement with little or no playing fatigue along with having more accurate repetition with Casio’s triple sensor electronics under each key.

The AP-710 key action expression is very good, especially for a plastic key action, which most of these pianos have in this price range. You would think that the Yamaha key action in this price range would be superior because they make acoustic pianos, but that is not the case here. Casio has done an outstanding job in recreating a superior key movement.

PEDALING

Piano pedaling is also an important aspect of any good piano and the
Casio AP-710 is no exception. The pedaling offers half-damper control for
variable sustain amount and duration of time. The piano pedaling also
triggers damper resonance which is when the dampers in a real piano are
off the strings and there is natural resonation of the strings occurring
along with the note that is played. Casio has recreated this experience
in the much lower priced Celviano AP-470 and it certainly is nice to have for those who are used to a real piano. The middle sostenuto pedal and left soft pedal
also work like a real piano and give people the added benefit of
reproducing the functionality of those pedals as well, although the
right damper sustain pedal is the primary pedal used more than 90% of
the time for most recreational piano players.

What really impressed me about the AP-710 pedaling was how rich, resonant, and long the sustain-decay time was on this model. On prior Casio digital pianos as well as other brands and models, the amount and length of the sustain was fairly short as compared to a real piano. Not so on the AP-710. The amount of sustain you get and the way it decays and the richness of that sustain when you are holding notes down or using your sustain pedal is very impressive and definitely added to the beauty of the piano playing experience that I had on it. The sustain effect was similar to what I get in a real grand piano. That was a very nice surprise and one that made me appreciate this piano even more than I already did.

CASIO COMPANY HISTORY

The Casio company has its worldwide
headquarters in Tokyo, Japan (left
pic) and has been producing digital pianos for over 40 years. They also
produce keyboards, pro synthesizers, as well as being famous for
calculators, advanced digital cameras, sports & consumer watches,
advanced digital technology for communication devices, and some very
impressive new digital computer technology. Casio produces their own
computer chips and proprietary micro technology and is able to do it at a
fraction of the cost of some of it’s biggest competitors and that is
why
Casio tends to have lower prices than many competitors.

Some people equate lower prices with
lower
quality and think you need to spend a lot more money or get a “name brand” in pianos to get
something really good. However, in my opinion, this latest model Casio
AP-710 is
very impressive for its lower price and easily competes with the other
popular digital piano brands including Yamaha (as I mentioned), Roland, and Kawai for
features, cabinet construction & style, and overall piano playing
experience realism.

 AUDIO WAV FILE/MIDI RECORDING & PLAYBACK

Another
impressive feature to me is the fact that Casio has included “wav file”
audio recording in this model. What that means is that you can record
yourself as an audio recording (CD quality) and save it to a USB
flashdrive in the piano. Then you can take that recording in the
flashdrive and plug it into your computer and email that song to your
friends and relatives to let them hear it on their computer just as you
played it!

Beyond that, you can import that music into computer music
programs for music education, composing, song arranging, etc for further
musical interaction and even turn the wav file recording into an MP3 to
play as an iTune on your iPad or iPod. The other major brands such as
Roland, Kawai, or Yamaha does not have this feature in this price range.
Another recording feature that is very useful and I use it in my
teaching studio, is the ability to record right and left hand playing
independently on 2 separate MIDI recording tracks and then play back
both hands simultaneously.

This feature is very helpful in allowing
piano students to practice and record one hand and then play that
recording back while they play the other hand “live” along with the
recording. It’s like having your teacher there playing along with you to
give you help in understanding your rhythm and timing better and it’s
also more fun to practice this way.

You can also save this recording and
other song recordings you have done to a USB flashdrive for storage so
you can come back later and work on and play along with those pieces
again.

USER DISPLAY SCREEN & OTHER FEATURES

The Bechstein-Casio Grand Hybrid pianos, which are the next models up, have their exclusive full length wood key action that are quite a bit more money and they start at $4299 with the GP-310 model. But those pianos offer this actual all wood “grand piano” hammer action with real moving synthetic resin hammers that move up & down like grand piano hammers do. The AP-710 offers the identical digital digital features and grand piano sounds as the higher priced GP-310 does with the exception of the GP-310 having a larger display screen, more audio power, the wood key action (very expensive to produce) and a different cabinet.

Speaking of LCD display screen, I personally like the control panel and display screen of the Casio AP-710 over the Yamaha and a few other models because if you notice the photos of these pianos, the Yamaha display screens are over to the left side of the keyboard and are a bit more difficult to use and see because of their location since you have to reach over the keys to get to the buttons…assuming you are right-handed like me. The AP-710 control panel and display screen is above the keys in front of the player for easy use, easy to see position of the display screen, and intuitive buttons which better access the piano sounds and functions of the AP-710.
A few other very cool features of the AP-710 include a new music library that consists of 10 full orchestra classical songs (plus more you can download from an internet site) which you can play along with using the piano sounds in the piano. The 10 orchestral songs are in an audio wav format (recorded from live orchestra) and sounds just like a real recording of the instruments as you would find on a regular CD recording of an orchestra. These new songs are independent in their sounds and format (the piano itself does not have these sounds) but you can interact with them by playing along live with the music. The 10 songs are standard classical music and although they are fun to play along with and do sound good, you would need to be able to read music (or play by ear) and play along at the song skill level so that you could interact with the music properly.

You can slow down the songs, mute either right or left hand playback sound for live playalong and do a few other things with the orchestra accompaniment which are all quite fun to do, sound great, and helpful for learning.

Casio AP-710 side view

It is important to note that the AP-710 piano does not have
built-in drum rhythms, automatic chords, music styles, hundreds of
instrument sounds, multi-track General MIDI recording & composing, etc. The AP-710 is
focused primarily on piano playing and is a very satisfying instrument for
its price that can handle many playing skill levels. However, it does have some useful “fun features” that I like but if you want even more additional interactive fun and educational functions/features, then you can easily connect to an iPad and experience some very cool interactive piano
technology which both adults and children will enjoy.

I use many iPad music/piano educational apps in my music studio to teach from and enhance the piano learning experience for both kids and adults. But as far as piano playing goes, this
digital piano has a big, loud, bold piano sound which can replace a
regular upright piano along with enough digital features to make the
learning and piano playing experience fun and gratifying for most people
seeking a quality instrument in a lower price range under $3000.
Speaking of fun features, you can connect an external device directly like an iPad or laptop computer using the AP-710 high speed class
compliant USB MIDI connection which allows for instant connection with
external computer devices without the need of downloading drivers or
having to convert a MIDI signal to USB. Since kids are growing up in the
“iPad world” I recommend to all piano students that they utilize the
exciting Apps available for tablets (and iPad in particular) to enhance
their playing and practice experience which will make them better
students and better musicians overall. Besides that, it’s super cool to
do this and when you’ve experienced the interaction of the Casio AP-710 with
an iPad (or Android) tablet and what it can musically and educationally do for you and your family, you’ll
be amazed at all the possibilities!

INSTRUMENT SOUNDS, LAYER, SPLIT & HALL EFFECTS

Other features of the AP-710 worth mentioning is more realistic instrument sounds (26 of them) which are taken from the higher priced Casio GP-310 Hybrid digital piano including noticeably improved strings,
harpsichord, organs, and electric pianos which can be split into two parts on the piano, layered/mixed together, and you can also use the “duet” function that allows 2 people to play piano at the same time. Another interesting feature is call Hall Simulation
which gives the stereo acoustic piano sound more spacious surround effects such
as you would hear in a large concert hall or church where there is
natural echo that occurs when playing an instrument.

AP-710 w/ closed key cover

The bottom line is…this top of the line Casio Celviano AP-710 is a piano for people who want to focus on the piano playing experience in a medium price range (under $2800) without too many “bells & whistles” to get in the way, but what it has in terms of technology is impressive. The AP-710 has a very attractive cabinet design that looks great and has a full back privacy panel, sounds big through its impressive internal speaker system, and uses a proprietary piano sound engine designed in part by the Bechstein grand piano company in Germany.

The AP-710 is right a the top of my recommendations in its price range under $3000, especially given the fact that it’s just $2799. Along with a big factory warranty of 5 years parts & labor with in-home service and a matching Casio height adjustable bench, which no other manufacturer offers in this price range, it’s a complete package that would be excellent for anyone looking for a more upgraded digital piano at a very reasonable price.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864 before you buy anything anywhere.