Kawai MP-11 SE

Pianul il folosesc in Biserica. De-a lungul aniilor am avut urmatoarele modele: Kurzweil SP4 - Kurzweil PC2X - Roland RD700GX/SX - Yamaha Motif XS8 - Korg PA588 - Yamaha CP4 - Iar ultimul a fost Nord Stage 1.
Dintre toate enumerate mei sus, cel mai mult mi-a placut Nord Stage... Dar totusi, nu eram pe deplin satisfacut de tonul de pian. Voiam ceva mai bun.

In Biserica folosesc cel mai tonul de Pian si Orga. Tonul de orga de pe Nord Stage suna satisfacator, nu as fi vrut sal schimb, dar pentru mine era mai important tonul de pian. Asa ca am decis sa fac o schimbare. Am vandut Nord Stage si am comandat Kawai MP11SE.

Prima impresie:
Pana acum nu ma interesa tastatura, actiunea/atingerea clapelor... Eram mai mult concentrat pe sunet, dar in momentul cand am atins clapele am avut un simtamant foarte placut. Am zis woaw! Foarte diferit de ce am avut pana acum!
Sunetul de pian de pe KAWAI este mult mai bun ca sunetul de pian de pe Nord Stage1
Am cantat timp de doua saptamani pe Kawai, dar din pacate Kawai nu are onuri de orga, si imi era foarte dor de orga Hammond de pe Nord Stage. In cele din urma am comandat Nord Stage 3.
Timp de o saptamana am detinut ambele piane.

Prima impresie NS3: In cele doua saptamani de cantat pe Kawai, actiunea clapelor a inceput sa-mi placa foarte mult.
Cand am primit NS3, tastatura, actiunea clapelor mi sa parut una foarte ieftina ''chinezeasca'' in comparatie cu tastaura Kawai,

Ca sunet de pian NS3 vs Kawai, tot Kawai ramane castigator. Greu de egalat. De pe Nord Stage 3 as fi vrut doar tonul de orga.

Concluzia finala:
Pana la urma am decis sa pastrez pianul Kawai... NS3 l-am returnat si pentru tonul de orga am comandat *Viscount Legend Expander* care spre surprinderea mea, este mai bun ca ce am gasit pe Nord Stage 3 !

Tin sa le multumesc echipei Thomann pentru profesionalism si serviciile oferite. Dupa parerea mea, sunt cei mai buni din lume!

I am using this piano for a practicing and in my home studio as a main source of piano sound and midi controller.
In my opinion, it has the best hammer action You can get on a market these days. I work as a professional pianist and keyboard player over 15 years and tried many top end stage pianos from Nord, Yamaha and Roland, So far this is the closest touch to real piano I ever played.

Sounds of pianos are beautifull, warm, just the noise of pedals by factory settings is too loud, but no big deal, you can change it in settings and save the preset. And same with the metronome, by factory settings is crazy loud.

The built quality is great, there are no cheap plastics, but solid metal and wood. The bad thing is that make this piano togather with a hammer action very heavy, I cant cary the piano on a gig just by myself, You need an another person to help you.

Handling is not a strongest point of this piano, but still ok, for expample if you want to play audio file from your USB stick, You may think You put USB Stick inside and press the button USB and find your file, but not,You have to press Record and do some steps to load the song, I had to google it to find out, it isnt intuitive.

Summary it is a great good looking Stage piano, and if you have somebody to help you to carry it, or You use keyboard mainly in studio or home as myself, it is a great choice!!!

I will preface this review by saying that the piano itself is superb as a substitute to a real acoustic / grand piano. The action is excellent, and it feels very pleasant to play. However, what makes the action so good also makes it fallible and thus feels like purchasing a long-term problem.
My own MP11SE displayed early issues only 18 months after purchasing it, and the support I received both from Kawai and Thomann was very disappointing.
After reaching out to Thomann about my piano’s issues, they arranged for a technician to come see the piano.

He replaced all the slip tapes in my piano and he was very pleasant. However, his visit fixed one problem and left several more.
Two keys now have friction against each other (caused by the wood they are built with having splinters), and it is quite distracting to hear it each time I play a piece which involves those keys.
I let the technician know immediately while he was at my house and he told me that "slight noises are part of the normal operation of a piano" and while I agree somewhat, the noise wasn't there before.
Furthermore, after practicing a section marked "pianissimo" I noticed a high D was significantly heavier to press than the other keys. This prompted a more thorough inspection, and I found that in total three keys were affected. Their action is evidently deteriorated, and they are hard to press and slow to return to their original position. This is extremely concerning and incompatible with proper expression of dynamics in certain pieces.
I reached out to Kawai, who conveniently referred me back to my dealer (Thomann).
I reached out to Thomann, who told me that they wouldn’t be able to have a solution before I was due to relocate. Bear in mind that between the original outreach for the piano’s issues and today, almost three months have passed. Three months in which my piano significantly deteriorated due to the actions taken by the official channels, only 18 months after purchasing the piano.
In summary, the piano is excellent but it comes with a fair amount of headaches that owners will have to be prepared to deal with. Naturally, no one who spends this amount of money on proper equipment wants to have these problems, so buyers beware.