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!!!

excellent instrument with a great variety in settings including brilliant and sharp to mellower/ lounge-ier piano sounds even though the namesake Shigeru setting is actually really all I need. I may imagine this but it sounds very kawai-esque, which was quite the transition from having played on yamaha stage pianos. It took some getting used to but I mean - that's to be expected when getting a new instrument I think.
It comes with the usual other instrument settings, the strings are "okay" (to be fair, i have yet to find one setting that could do a string section any justice so I might be biased here, it's still one of the better ones but yeah, that is literally the only part I'd not expect too much of) but every (other) setting is tastefully made and usable. There are even some fun ones that can be layered or used with a split keyboard which is great for layering tracks. I personally mainly use the piano sounds but I can imagine someone enjoying the other ones as well.

The keyboard plays naturally and the combination of different sounds and the option to change the responsiveness of the keys allows to completely transform the playing experience.

Downsides:
Pressing the sustain-pedal creates a shattering sound that is virtually only audible using headphones but still irritating. I haven't found a way yet to turn it off. At 34kg it is quite heavy and cases take some time to manufacture.
The multitude of ways to tweak the different settings is at first quite overwhelming but the price point should have indicated already that this instrument would be overkill for a beginner anyway.