Yamaha P515 vs. Kawai ES920

[zephonic]

I tried the ES920 today. The action felt lighter than expected, honestly. I guess I was thinking more MP11 or VPC kind of weight. Also, the keys felt kind of slippery. Maybe because it was fresh out of the box, idk.

 

The AP sounds were very nice, really up there with the best, going from memory. But the EP's were just adequate. Internal speakers are actually pretty decent, technology has come a long way in that regard.

 

I really wanted to like it more and buy it, because the dealer got it especially for me to try out and he couldn't sell me a P515. I need to find one of those locally to see if it is as good as my memory tells me.

[pawelsz]

On 12/17/2022 at 6:21 PM, pawelsz said:

 

I can confirm about P-515, it's the piano I bought after trying CLP-645 which has same NWX action. That wood inside white keys really makes difference, compared to hollow plastic Yamaha GH3 or GH3X action. And they're not just slim wooden sides, they're solid wooden core inside the white keys, but the far back part of the key is plastic like it always was. You can find photos somewhere in the web. Kawai does not have wood but has metal counterweights which in fact play similar role, compared to having hollow keys.

 

I have P-515 and I have very briefly played something with RHIII action (probably it was CN37 several years ago). IIRC they are really similar in terms of key weight. Maybe P-515 is slightly faster on key return and maybe a little more "stiffer" to make the key move down. But it's very comfortable action for me, and not tiring at all! It even helped me to improve my technique, to play with less force, with more arm weight. But obviously your experience can be totally different than mine.

 

Also, I haven't read about many quality issues with Yamaha while we often read about problems with Kawai. Ironically I had a minor issue with headphone output with my Yamaha, but fixed under warranty in 2019 and nothing else bad happened since then. But Kawais are also extermely popular so maybe it's proportional. I strongly recommend you to find an instrument with RHIII action and try it to make your own opinion. I also had a sound preference to Yamaha, because to my ears it's more aggresive sounding than Kawai. It's worth noticing that you receive FC4A pedal with P-515 which is not a half-damper, so if you want half-damper you must buy additional FC3A or go with the whole stand+pedal unit package. With ES920 you receive proper F-10H half-damper pedal.

 

I have played a bit CN29 last time. The RHIII action is lighter than NWX. I am sure now. Seems also Kawai has better pianissimo than Yamaha. And obviously different sound character. I must say that RHCII action found in KDP120 is also very nice, being light. ES520 has same action as KDP120. Defitinitely better than GHS from Yamaha.

I also played Yamaha CLP-735 with GrandTouch-S (without wood) - lighter, more balanced than NWX (especially black keys with longer pivot length), more sensitive. I wonder if Yamaha will put GrandTouch-S with or without wood in P-515 successor. Anyway P-515 is great. When I played some acoustics (long time ago and rarely) I rather struggled with the weight of action, so practising on something heavier should help to be prepared to play on anything.