Yes Big @ss Monster
Yes the Kawai is a big monster, very heavy, the key action is mechanical and the keyboard bed is very, very solid. The action is hands down the best out of any electronic digital piano, I played all of them and there was no comparison. Interestingly, as I say or have said, from electric pinal to electric piano (electric piano referes in this context to digital pianos of the newer type, note the Rhodes, Wurlitzer of yesteryear) the KAWAI was the best I found. Nevertheless, if you then go to a real piano, particularly,
a Steinway B, you will see the real difference and you will know that there is no electronic piano, new or old, that has ever even come close to those instrumens, either the feel of sound. A new Steinway B is a remarkable thing. The feel, sound touch...astounding. The amount of expression offered by one of those instruments and the amout of inspiration you get basically has no equal anywhere. But, and this is important, there is way of playing that a real piano encourages. Real pianos respond in certain ways and thus are played withint the realm of that response. The KAWAI does respond in some ways like a piano becuase it does have a mechanical keyboard, not just a weighted keyboard with velocity. There is an approximateion of hammer action. Hammers in real pianos have a kind of "hopper" action that you can feel. Pianists use the hopper action to control the expression on the keyboard. It produces a characteristic feel. The KAWA mechanically imitates this and therein lies its beauty and value. So, choose what you like, but personally, the Yamaha to be was toy-like by comparison. And the sound was nothing special, not bad, not great, okay. If you need to move it around, fine, if not, it does not even compare to the KAWAI. That, BTW, is just my opinion.
