Roland’s LX line has been with us for several years now, and the current lineup of three models strongly serves as Roland’s home digital piano flagship models and is without question among the finest digital pianos currently available.
While the value proposition of the entry into the LX700 series, the LX705, and the LX708 top model are very clear, sometimes the model in the middle – the LX706 – can be overlooked.
In this article and companion video, we’re going to do a deep dive into this Roland piano that perhaps didn’t always get as much attention as it deserves, though we suspect that may change. In fact, for a good number of people investigating options in this class, the Roland LX706 upright digital piano might actually be the best overall option when considering its specific combination of high-quality performance, aesthetics and price.
Roland LX706 Digital Upright Piano – Background
As we mentioned above, there seems to be a tendency for the LX-706 to sometimes get overlooked. In fact, the first time we took a look at Roland’s most recent incarnation of the LX series, even we skipped over the LX706.
Now, this wasn’t at all a slight against the LX706, but rather an expression of what our customers were telling us, as most of the people shopping with us were opting either for the LX705, or if they were going to make the jump, they were going all the way to the LX708 since it was only marginally moree expensive than the 706.
For a fairly modest price increase, the Roland LX708 offers an 8-speaker system as opposed to the 6-speaker system on the LX706, more powerful amplifiers and a taller cabinet.
This brings us to 2022, and as everyone is well aware, we’re living in a time of extreme inflation. The piano industry has not been immune to this and as a result, we’ve experienced a series of significant price hikes on many products, to the point that LX708 is now quite a bit more expensive than the LX706 costing almost as much as a new piano of the acoustic baby grand variety.
The LX706 now occupies the price point that the LX708 did when we first reviewed the series. This being the case, we suspect that the LX706 is going to start getting a lot more attention, especially from folks in the market looking to keep the budget well under $10,000, whether that’s Canadian or American currency.
Let’s start by discussing everything sound related to the LX706.
Digital Piano Sound
Roland’s PureAcoustic Piano Modeling
The LX706 is loaded up with Roland’s newest and most advanced piano sound engine with the PureAcoustic Modeling Ambience Technology engine.
Modeling technology refers to the real-time creation of piano tone that is not dependent on the playback of a sample. This means that we’re working with a computer model that’s taking into account many sound-related factors such as the striking of the string by a hammer, cabinet resonance, soundboard type and even the mechanical sounds that the pedals make.
This gives the user an immense level of control to go in and tweak a number of parameters to further shape the piano tone to their preference.
That said, this engine sounds pretty darn great right out of the box, to the point that many users won’t ever even feel the need to get in there and edit the tone.
American & European Grands
The PureAcoustic engine features two core grand piano patches. While Roland hasn’t specified which two pianos they used for inspiration and simply refers to the two presets as American and Europe, their website shows photos of a Hamburg Steinway and New York Steinway so it’s safe to assume that these are the instruments these presets were modeled after.
The European and American Grands have very different characters, which is welcome as it gives us a lot of variety to work with. Starting with the European Grand, and the kind of depth and sustain we’re hearing means that they’ve definitely modeled a 9’ concert grand piano. Switching over to the American Grand, and that’s definitely the case here too.
Interestingly, between those two sounds the American sound is slightly more open and sounds a little less blended than the European, nor is the American sound as thick.
Roland has made significant efforts in recent years to increase the dynamics of their sound engines, and what we mean by that is the variations in tone between playing loud and soft. Roland was known for being a step behind Kawai in this regard, but now we would definitely put them on a level playing field.
PianoDesigner
As we mentioned above, there’s a crazy amount of user control available with this tone engine, similar to the level of control you get with some VSTs like Pianoteq.
With that in mind, there are actually three levels of editing that you can get into depending on how deep you want to go. For those looking at it simply there’s the My Stage feature, which is really a set of presets with different configurations of the parameters.
If you want to go a layer deeper, you can directly edit 6 bigger picture parameters – PureAcoustic Ambience, Key Touch, Brilliance, Master Tuning, Temperament, and Hammer Response.
Finally, if you really want to go down the rabbit hole, there’s the Piano Tone Edit button, and this gets quite intense, allowing you to edit things like Single Note Character, Single Note Volume, Single Note Tuning, Soft Pedal Manipulation, Damper Noise, Soundboard Type, Cabinet Resonance, Key Off Resonance, Full Scale String Resonance, Duplex, Hammer Noise, Key Off Noise, and Lid height.
Polyphony
Another thing that’s very notable about this engine is that the polyphony is limitless on all piano category tones.
Is this really necessary? Not really, since anything over about 96 and up is going to be fine for solo piano playing anyway, but it does show just how powerful this sound engine is.
Other Sounds
Moving out of the acoustic piano tones, and things shift over to a more conventional tone generator delivering 256 notes worth of polyphony across more than 300 total sounds.
Roland’s electric pianos are probably the best in the industry with the most realistic playing experience, and the organs would also be in that conversation. In fact, all of the core sounds are of professional quality, and once you get past those, we move into the General MIDI 2 bank, which is why the total count is so high.
Navigating the various sounds is quite easy on board, but it’s even easier on a smart device via the new Roland Piano App, which replaces the somewhat clunky Piano Every Day app.
Acoustic Projection Speaker Sound System
The LX-706 features a powerful 6-speaker system referred to as the Acoustic Projection Sound System.
The 6 speakers consist of a pair of large cabinet speakers with speaker box, a pair of slightly smaller near-field speakers with speaker box, and finally a pair of tweeters.
The total amplifier power is a robust 74 watts, and Roland has done an excellent job of integrating the speaker system into the cabinet of the instrument, resulting in some very organic-sounding cabinet resonance.
While the speakers may be even better on the LX-708, this is nonetheless a serious hi-fi setup.
Keyboard Action
Hybrid Grand Keyboard
Whereas the LX705, like most other higher tier Roland digital pianos, uses the PHA-50 action, the LX-706 receives the more advanced action that only otherwise goes in the LX-708 – the very exclusive Hybrid Grand Keyboard with wooden siding.
What makes this action more advanced than the beloved PHA-50? Something that isn’t talked about as much as it should be in the digital piano space – is pivot length.
The logic here is that the closer a digital piano’s pivot point is to that of a real piano (generally a grand piano), the closer the sense of motion and control is going to be to that of an acoustic piano.
We’ve gone in and measured, and the Hybrid Grand action is boasting a pivot length that matches most 7-foot grand pianos. In fact, the Hybrid Grand has a longer key pivot length than any other digital piano action as it’s even slightly longer than Kawai’s much revered Grand Feel III.
The end result is an action that is arguably the best digital piano key action outside of the actual acoustic piano actions used in the Hybrid instruments from Kawai and Yamaha.
The keys feel very even regardless of where you play them, and advanced techniques typically reserved for acoustic piano actions are possible here, making even advanced classic repertoire totally possible.
Stabilizer Pin
Another feature worth highlighting is the presence of a stabilizer pin, a vertical pin that sits in the middle of every key near the back.
This has the same effect as the balance rail pins do on an acoustic piano which is to provide torsional stability. This means there is no lateral motion when playing this action, and also ensures excellent long-term durability.
Escapement, Triple Sensor & Textured Key Tops
Another thing that needs to be highlighted with this action is the presence of escapement, which is a recreation of the same physical feeling one gets when playing an acoustic grand piano action.
The Hybrid Grand action is also loaded up with a triple sensor meaning the MIDI output and dynamic potential of the action are very good.
Like the PHA-50, there are also Ebony and Ivory feel textures on the top of the keys here which provide a good sense of glide while also absorbing skin oils.
Additional Features
Cabinet & Finish Options
The LX706 features a gorgeous cabinet with seriously impressive carpentry. In fact, the LX series cabinets arguably feature the nicest carpentry in the class.
In terms of the finish options, the LX-706 is available in your choice of Charcoal Black, Dark Rosewood, or Polished Ebony for an additional cost.
Connectivity
The LX-706 features the standard array of connectors one would expect from a high-end home digital piano.
Running down the list we have dual headphone jacks, USB Type A and B, a stereo mini line in and 1/4” L/MONO, R output jacks.
The LX-706 is also equipped with both Bluetooth MIDI and Bluetooth Audio, meaning you can take advantage of the 706’s excellent speaker system by streaming music directly from a device through the piano.
Other Functions
The LX-706 is loaded up with almost 400 built-in songs including the Roland Piano Masterpieces and a large stable of lesson music.
It also has a built-in 3-part MIDI recorder so pianists can record their practice sessions or do some arranging, as well as all of the standard features one would expect like a metronome, transpose, twin piano, split, layer etc.
Closing Thoughts
Given everything the Roland LX706 has to offer, and most importantly, the fact that it’s also equipped with the same core features as the LX-708, namely the PureAcoustic engine and exclusive Hybrid Grand action, with the large price difference now in effect it seems like a safe bet that it will increase in popularity.
Sure, there will always be those who want to go all the way and get the superior speakers and cabinet only found in the LX-708, but the fact remains; the LX-706 is one of the single nicest home digital pianos on the market, period.
Thanks for reading!
