Kawai ES920, ES520, and ES110 Comparison! 

If anyone gets the ES110 and records via line outputs, it is a BILLION percent necessary to turn off the Speaker EQ for best sound quality. Press A#6 while holding the Function button down. (ES110 has three reverb sizes and drum rhythms, too)

Really curious how the new ES120 action will compare to the ES920/520.

Thank you very much for that detailed and nice comparison James! Always a pleasure to watch and listen. Greetings and much love from Greece.

What a fantastic review and I really enjoyed the pieces you played. Thank you very much.

I bought an ES110 from reading all and every review I could find on the net and to have you take a 110 with you as opposed to any number of keyboards at your disposal makes me feel I made the right choice, I am a total beginner, a total beginner but thankyou for the reviews that you do............ I only wish I could play as well as you do. I am 60 and literally only started after all this time................... Again thankyou for the time and effort you put into each and every vid you make.

Thanks, the way you play the piano makes it a joy to watch your reviews

So glad to hear you say you like the ES110 best. A while back when my family grew pretty large in short while, I had to sell my grand, because it was old and not very good quality and extremely loud so I couldn't practice without thinking I'm probably pissing off the rest of the family. I bought an ES100 and I have to say with 35 years of experience from playing back then I felt like it was a fully worthy practice instrument for me. Now I'm thinking about a secondary instrument to have upstairs for when I take short breaks from working and I have to say I might go for the ES110 after seeing this review. I traded up the ES100 for an ES8 and it was certainly a better instrument, but the ES100 held its own!

Excellent timing, James! I am going to upgrade my little Yamaha P45 to a Kawai, and I was just wondering which one to consider. Thanks very much for the review. ES110 sounds like a winner, my wallet just gave a sigh of relief.

James, this is a very good video. Interesting conclusion you come to - the ES110, the cheapest model, is probably the best value. You have done a lot of comparisons of competing slab pianos. Let me suggest something different for your next video - a comparison of competing home pianos. I would suggest comparing the Kawai CA79 with the Yamaha CLP685.

This comes out after finally making a purchase decision for the ES110. Feels good.

Received my Yamaha P-515 yesterday finally :-)

Thank you for your review, just a liitle comment: The kawai ES 520 has the RHC 2 action, not the RH 2 (that was another action before RH 3). In kawai’s web, the RHC 2 has triple sensor but not escapement simulation, whereas the RH 2 have escapement… Having tried both ES 110 and ES 520, I agree with you that the action of the 110 is more realistic than 520’s despite the improvement of the triple sensor. It’s a super keyboard for the money that coasts…

The song is Cavatine by Edouard Schütt (Op 40 no 2). Took me a while, because I thought you said Schubert and then turned it into some kind of jazzy improv. :)

I changed my mind about another keyboard after watching your review and got the ES110 instead. You're right the speakers are bad (sorry but they really are), but it is very playable and am generally pleased. Cheers.

Congrats for all your passionate and very useful reviews; the ES110 is discontinued; did you try the Kawai KDP-120 ? Would love to know your opinion , Thanks

Another feature about de pedal is the sensor is optical... Great pedal, without doubt

This is great

Hi James, I have really enjoyed your reviews. I am an intermediate player and would like your opinion on the Kawai 110 vs the Yamaha 515b. I'm not worried about price difference or synth features. My main focus would be practice with headphones so I can play at night while people are sleeping. Which has the more realistic piano feel and sound if you could boil it down to those two things? There is a Yamaha 515 available at my local music store for $1500. The Kawais are all on backorder as far as I can tell and I can't find one to try anywhere. Should I hold out for the Kawai or just buy the Yamaha that's available? Thank you for your detailed reviews. I have enjoyed them very much! (If anyone else has experience with these two instruments please feel free to chime in as well. Thank you!)

Thanks

I was using ES110 for a long time - it is the great Kawai ever!

James!!! Its just released ES120!!!!

Another great and down-to-earth comparison! Have you considered reviewing virtual piano software? I'm curious if such software could breathe even more life into a little gem like the ES110

So if you where a intermediate player and looking to buy a new digital piano, where the most important factor is the pianistic action, touch and feel (I don't really care for any of the other sounds and effects), which piano would you recommend then/which would you buy in that scenario? I was actually leaning towards the ES520 because it felt like a good long term and affordable choice (after watching your first video about the ES520), but now after watching this video I got second thoughts whether the ES520 is the best choice in that price range. What would you personally recommend? Thanks in advance!

Hey James, thanks for the good comparison. Do you have any tips on the settings of the ES 110? which settings you prefer on it/ would you recomment? Thanks in Advance!

More than a year after getting the ES110 and still not feeling the need to upgrade

I was close to pulling the trigger on the ES520 and now I think going with the ES110 may be the best bet. I have found paying a little extra goes a long way with musical instruments. Now I am scratching my head.

Was just wondering if you could do a review on the Nord Piano 4?

Kawai-us homepage is indeed wrong. It specs the ES520 to have RHII action with letoff. Well, RHII acrion has indeed letoff, but the 520 uses the RHCII (C=compact). Both the global and the german homepage are correct on this. Furthermore the german homepage explicitly states: letoff:no

Please review the Nord Grand!

Hey James, can you explain what do you mean by 'completely different beast'? @ 13:19 I have a G1 air for myself back home and I'd Iike a smaller piano to bring with me to where I'm staying at the moment. Having experienced Korg's RH action, I'd like to know your opinion on the difference, cheers!

Thank you so much for very informative video. I've already made up my mind.

I have the CA99 so went with the ES520 as a good compromise between portability and presence. The triple sensor also is better for midi and was a major deciding factor over the ES110. Too bad the 520 can't record midi directly to USB memory like the ES920.

Can someone inform me the piece title of the soft gentle music James played?

yo i have a little question u said the es 110 is the best feel and stuff but i have a budget of around 1000 and im looking for the best action 1000 can afford would you actually still recommend the es110 or a epiano from a different brand?

Hi. Could you make a comparison between Yamaha p515, Kawai es920 and Dexibell vivo s7 pro M?

Hi James, thank you for your wonderful videos. In this video, are there any setting with the es110? Because i heard something like cymbal whenever it've played.

ES110... value king! :D

I'm looking to buy a 2nd piano since our Kawai CA-79 is too heavy to move back and forth to our summer cottage. The escapement on its Grand Feel III action doesn't bother me. However, I very much dislike actions that are much heavier back near the fallboard. I haven't found a direct comparison between the GF3 (which feels very good) and RH3 actions in this regards. Any comment about this issue? You mentioned briefly that all 3 of these are noticeably heavier at the back.

Could you please do a comparison between the ES 920 and the Kawai MP7 SE ? Thanks !

Hey james, what is the second piece you played id really like to know.

I'm surprised to hear the James say he prefers playing the 110 to the 920 (portability was also a factor). Does anyone else who has played both think the same way?

You wasn’t sure if it had a lead-off earlier. Strange that they mentioned that because you would think they know what they using. I can’t remember if the keys had any lead-off to be honest. It’s a while ago when I tried one in a shop but I can’t remember it. I got the impression that the tone of 920 is better. A slightly more stereo if you know what I mean. The 110 is just a bit flatter. In one of the reviews last week you asked yourself already the question if the lead-off is really necessary and I start to think not. Next week I am in a shop that got both keyboards and real acoustic pianos. I can’t play that much but I can try a bit. Let’s see what comes out of that. For now thank you for sharing, playing and fiddling around.

I want a great competitor/upgrade to the es110 with 73/76 keys.. do you think the Korg sv2s-73 can be that?

Actually, if u put on ur earphones, u still can hear the es520 2nd sound like the 1st one.....but much shorter than 1 st

The ES 520 doesn't have the RHII. It has the Compact II action. (Responsive Hammer Compact II)

Can you send me the notes of the piece you played?

Humm... can I transplant the 110 action into the 920 case? ... or maybe just neuter the rh3 "improvement"... humm & aargh...

What would be the best possible gig piano for professional pianist in your opinion?

Just asking for a friend is it possible to connect an ES110 to a laptop? What are the cables/adaptors needed? And dus the laptop need to have IOS?🎹🎶

I just checked the ES520 and ES110 body build in-store and both are not great. Even ES110, when you press hard the front body, it could touch the keys. Thanks to James review on his top 10 piano, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6TWWd-hNyNE.html, and all other web site reviews on P515, I just decided to get the Yamaha P515 since there's just $300 difference between ES520 and the P515.

Totally agree, the ES-110 is excellent value for money. I bought one about a year ago and started practicing. Couple of months ago I traded in the ES-110 for a ES-920. It has a lot more power and a far better interface. This, the quality of the sounds and a couple of other extra's, was worth it to me. But if I didn't had the money I would have kept my ES-110.

They removed the pedal in es120

Oh boy, don't let anyone tell you that any of these models is comparable to an acoustic piano.

"Gram Weight Boy strikes again"

What can you do about the buzzing sound?

Honestly, coming from a ES110 player for the last year, and just recently upgrading to a p-515, It is a truly great instrument. It wins out in it's price range. I really like it's sound, but the action is too light and the speakers somewhat inferior. Still, 100% worth it. If this is your price range, get it.

Man im so disappointed with kawai, my only wish was a portable with longer keys like grand feel compact, would love if they would make a plastic version of that action for their high end portables.

Kawai has always had quality issues, then they bring out long anticipated ES8 upgrade, and bring an even more inferior quality instrument. WTF KAWAI