Kawai ES8 Review: Among the best digital home piano under $2k

Kawai ES8 is a home digital piano, and possibly the best one under $2k. The digital piano features excellent sounds and styles, graded hammer keyboard action, and can be used for practice or piano recital at home or in the classroom, can even be used on stage.

Kawai ES8 Digital Piano: Highlights

• Top acoustic piano sounds, three Kawai grands with 30 other instruments
• Responsive Hammer III keybed feels like an acoustic piano
• Built-in speakers

Fully weighted keys, 100 Accompaniment Styles, 256-note polyphony, powerful built-in speaker systems and lets you record and play digital audio from USB. [easyazon_link identifier=”B014Q7IVHG” locale=”US” tag=”keytarhq04-20″ cart=”n”]See PRICE on Amazon[/easyazon_link].

Kawai ES8: Pros & Cons

• Pros: Superb feel and response, comes with powerful built-in speakers, LCD screen
• Cons: Weighing just over 20 kgs it can take some effort to move the piano around

Kawai ES8 Digital Piano: Review

Looking for an excellent digital piano to be used at home? This Kawai digital piano can be a good (and cheaper) alternative to a baby grand. The keyboard action and the pedal feel is fantastic, similar to that on a very expensive piano.

Great Tonal Quality
The piano produces sounds with great level of detail and clarity, thanks to Kawai’s Harmonic Imaging XL technology.

Touch
The keybed features Responsive Hammer III keyboard action that feels like the touch of an acoustic grand piano. A triple-sensor key detection system enhances responsiveness and accuracy.

Built-in Speaker System
The ES8 features powerful stereo speaker system, a great feature to have on a digital piano.

USB Audio & Storage
Now you can easily record and play digital audio, store songs, play song files and connect to computers.

Kawai ES8 Piano: Demo / Video Review

Competition Check

Here are a few othe pianos that you may consider:

• Kawai ES-100: Weighs less and costs less than the ES8. This is a popular digital piano
• Yamaha P255: One of the best-selling digital pianos, and the flagship piano from the P series.
• Yamaha YDP-163: Want an upright/console digital piano? Do checkout the Arius YDP-163 piano.

Features & Specs

Features of the Kawai ES8 portable digital piano.

• Action: 88 keys with Ivory Touch surface, Responsive Hammer III (RHIII) action with Let-Off simulation and 3 Sensors per key
• Piano Sounds: Shigeru Kawai EX, Kawai EX, Shigeru Kawai SK-5, Jazz Clean, Warm Grand, Pop Grand, Upright Piano, Pop Grand 2, Modern Piano, Rock Piano
• Other Sounds: E-Piano x 4, Organ x 4, Harpsichord/Mallets x 4, Strings/Choir x 8, Bass x 4
• Accompaniment: 100 Rhythms with Variation, Demo Songs: 27, Several effects
• Polyphony: max. 256 notes
• Virtual Technician: Voicing per key, Damper Resonance, Damper Noise, String Resonance, Key-off Effect, Fall-back Noise, Hammer Delay, Topboard, Decay Time, Soft Pedal Depth, Minimum Touch, Tuning, Volume and Tune of each key
• Amp Simulator: S.Case I, S.Case II, L.Cabinet – each with Drive, Level, EQ Low, EQ High
• Split-Mode: yes, with Balance and free Split point
• Dual-Mode: yes, with Balance
• Touchcurve: Light 1/2, Normal, Heavy 1/2, USER 1/2, off
• Recorder: USB Memory: MP3/WAV Recording and Playback
• USB Functions: Playback: MP3, WAV, SMF ; Recording: MP3, WAV ; Functions: Audio Overdub, Song to Audio Convertion, Load internal Songs, Save internal Songs, Save SMF Songs, Load Registration, Save Registration, Delete File, Format USB Memory
• Built-in Metronome
• LCD Display
• Jacks: USB to Host, USB to Device, MIDI (IN/OUT), LINE IN STEREO, LINE OUT (L/MONO, R), DAMPER (for F-10H), DAMPER/SOFT (for F-20), PEDAL (for F-301), Phones x 2, AC-adapter PS-154
• Pedals: F10H Sustain Pedal with Half-Damper function included. Optional: Double Pedal F-20 or F301 3-pedal unit (only in combination with the HM-4 stand)
• Speaker: 2 x (8×12)cm with Bass-Reflex-System, Amplification: 2 x 15 Watts
• Finishes: Available in Glossy Black or Snow White
• Dimension in cm: 136,2 x 36,1 x 14,9, Weight in kg: 22,5
• Accessories incl.: Metall music rack, AC-adapter PS154, Manual
• Options: Designkit: HM-4 stand with acrylic music rack; F-301 3-pedal unit to be mounted at the HM-4 stand

Overall: Buying Links & Pricing

Overall, the Kawai ES8 Digital Piano is a great offering from Kawai. Use it for a gig on stage, in the church choir, for learning in the classroom or for practicing at home.

• [easyazon_link identifier=”B014Q7IVHG” locale=”US” tag=”keytarhq04-20″ cart=”n”]Buy Kawai ES8 Digital Piano on Amazon[/easyazon_link]

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KeytarHQ Editorial Team

KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.