As far as I am concerned, the new Kawai 9500 is absolutely great. I have the 9000 and wish I could get a hold of a 9500. If you want I will sell you my 9000 for the price of the smaller model, the ESX or whatever that smaller Kawai model is.
If you are interested, the 9000 is sgreat becuase of the feel and sound. The piano sounds are great and the keyboard is as close as you can get to the real thing. I have played classical pieces on the Kawai and it works just fine.
As with all digital pianos, the biggest drawback is the pedaling. The sustain pedal on digital pianos is basically an on off switch. On a real piano, the gradations on the pedal is responsible for some of the many different tones and colors you can get from a piano. I realize that in terms of sampling, it would take something along the lines of a huge mainframe to hold enough information to have subtle variations in the pedaling including the sustain, soft and lower sustaine or middle pedal.
There is also something called the Pro 3 or some such by General Music that has gotten rave reviews for its sound. It is probably the only rival for the Kawai. As for the Yamaha, compared to the Kawai, the sound and feel, to me are no match. I tried the Yamaha as it was my original intention to purchase that one. I did not get it after playing the Kawai. That became my instrument of choice and it is my main instrument for controlling all my synths and samplers, hard and soft.
Hoep this has been helpful.
) to spend and I would like this piano for gigging (needs to be lighter than the kawai - I have my Kawai synth to carry too!)