Two ways of making a piano sound
The Roland LX-6 and the Yamaha CLP-845 sit close enough in the upper-console market that most buyers end up weighing one against the other, with the Roland listing higher of the two. What separates them is not a feature list — it is a disagreement about how a digital piano should produce its tone in the first place. Roland calculates it. Yamaha recorded it.
A note on method: this is a spec-based head-to-head. We have not played these two side by side, so instead of ruling on feel we set out what each maker actually built, and match it to the player it suits.
Sound: modelled against recorded
The LX-6 runs PureAcoustic Piano Modeling. There is no fixed recording underneath it — the instrument builds the note as you play, which is why Roland can offer keyboard-wide adjustment of things like string and cabinet resonance, and why the LX-6 carries 324 voices in total. A modelled engine does not run out of samples, so the top of the range costs Roland nothing to include.
The CLP-845 takes the opposite route: recordings of Yamaha's own CFX concert grand and the Bösendorfer Imperial, with VRM adding string resonance on top. The voice count is 38, and the two piano tones are the point. The CFX is the bright, projecting one; the Bösendorfer is darker and heavier in the bass. For classical repertoire that pairing is a genuinely useful contrast, and both are recordings of instruments you can go and hear.
Which you prefer is close to a philosophical choice. Modelling gives continuity and adjustability; sampling gives you two specific, famous pianos captured in a room. Neither is the better technology in the abstract.
Key action: wood in both, arrived at differently
The LX-6 uses Roland's Hybrid Grand Keyboard, which combines wood with a moulded composite. The CLP-845 uses GrandTouch-S with wooden white keys — the same action family Yamaha fits across the mid-Clavinova range, in its shorter form.
On our spec-derived touch scale the Roland action grades higher than the Yamaha, but that number comes from published construction details, not from playing them. Action preference is the one thing a spec sheet genuinely cannot settle, and both makers have players who will not switch. If you can get to a showroom for one thing, make it this.
The cabinet: a tall Roland, a wide Yamaha
These two occupy a room differently, and the numbers are not close. The LX-6 is 1383 mm wide, 493 mm deep and 1118 mm tall, at 87.5 kg. The CLP-845 is 1450 mm wide, 460 mm deep and 927 mm tall, at 60 kg.
So the Roland is nearly 20 cm taller and 27.5 kg heavier, while the Yamaha is about 7 cm wider and noticeably lower. If the piano goes under a window, against a low shelf, or into a room where you want to see over it, the Yamaha's lower cabinet matters. If two people have to carry it upstairs, the 27.5 kg difference is not a detail. Both are furniture you install once, but they are not interchangeable in a floor plan.
Volume, outputs and the small print
The CLP-845 drives 180 watts through four speakers; the LX-6 spreads 116 watts across five. More speakers is not more volume, and on paper the Yamaha has the greater headroom for filling a large room. Both are far beyond what a normal living room needs.
Two practical differences are worth flagging. The CLP-845 has a line out and the LX-6 does not, which settles it if you intend to feed a mixer or an audio interface rather than record over USB. And the LX-6 carries more built-in songs, 377 against 303, which matters only if you use them for structured practice.
Where they draw even
Most of the rest is shared. Both give 256-note polyphony, ample for heavily pedalled Romantic writing. Both have Bluetooth Audio and Bluetooth MIDI, USB MIDI and app connectivity. Both provide two headphone jacks with headphone optimisation, which is what makes late-night practice bearable rather than merely quiet. Both include the stand and the damper pedal, both do layer and split, onboard recording, metronome and transpose. Neither has a microphone input.
Who should buy which
Buy the Roland LX-6 if the idea of a modelled instrument appeals — a tone you can adjust rather than select, and 324 voices to move through. It is also the pick if you want Roland's Hybrid Grand Keyboard specifically. Accept the taller cabinet, the extra 27.5 kg and the missing line out.
Buy the Yamaha CLP-845 if you want the CFX and Bösendorfer pairing as recorded instruments, a lower and lighter cabinet that is easier to place and move, more amplifier power, and a line out for external gear. It also lists lower, which makes it the more efficient buy if the sound engine argument leaves you unmoved.
Put briefly: the Roland is the more adventurous instrument and the Yamaha the more practical one. If you cannot try both actions, buy the sound philosophy you actually want to live with.