Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Kawai CS10 vs. K-200/K-300 - What to buy?

I've already read ad nauseam the debates about digital vs. acoustic so this post isn't meant to go there at all. I visited the one and only Kawai dealer within a 3 hour radius of where I live and it looks like I can get a CS10 and a K-200 for about the same price (+/- $4,800). Unfortunately, the dealer doesn't have either one of these in stock for me to play. For about another $1,800 - $2,000 I could get a K-300 (again, the dealer doesn't have one of these in stock).

Basing your decision strictly on sound quality, what would you do? Obviously the K-300 is going to sound better than the K-200 but is the extra $ worth it? Does the K-300 sound better than the CS10 digital? Is the CS10 a clear winner over the K-200? Again, forget the fact that the CS10 is a digital. Try and rank the three models based strictly on sound quality alone and if you rank the K-300 above the other two, please tell me if you feel like the extra sound quality is worth the extra $1,800 - $2,000.

Undoubtedly there will be those that recommend other brands/models, etc. That's fine but stick with new models only that are in this price range, let's leave used models out of it to keep from muddying the waters too much.

K200+silent system and you have both worlds for the price of a k300.

If you just wanna have fun, a CS10 or even less will be fine. If you want to learn to play on real accoustics...K series IMO is the way to go.

By the way, depending on the size of the room in which you play, consider asking for a sweet voicing, it makes a huge difference. K200 is small but powerful. The pp range is far easier to achieve on the CS10.

My opinion would be:

Buy a good acoustic (no wires inside, nothing complicated which could cause costs later on).

If you need something for silent practice, buy some cheap/portable digital piano or keyboard.

Go out and try the pianos hands on first!
If a dealer wants some money from you, he will have to have it in stock for you, to try before you buy.

A Kawai dealer who does not stock a K-200 or K-300? What does he have in stock?

+1
Are they waiting for replacement inventory or for you to order? Without further explanation, it doesn't make sense that a Kawai dealer would have any of these common models.

As far as the K-200 vs high-end digital like the CS10, I would really want to talk with you more before making a recommendation. As far as a student's musical development is concerned, both have strengths and weaknesses but would carry you about as far. The K-300 is enough better to offer a higher ceiling for musical development. If you still need digital features, buy something affordable with a good action like a Casio Privia to go with your acoustic.

I think the 300 is worth the upgrade price if you have the dosh.

Given some decent speakers the digital will have a bigger, richer, more sonorous bass since it's sampled off a full size grand but it will still suffer (a little) from a compressed dynamic range and some of the other "digitalness" that despite good efforts have not been fully solved.

We repair electronic keyboards and I can guarantee you the service costs on the acoustic will exceed the digital because the digital will only incur costs IF it breaks and 90 percent of keyboard repairs are less than the cost of 2 tunings from a highly regarded and popular tech. Even the occasional motherboard replacement is around the cost of a thorough regulation.

If you have volume issues, the digital. If you're fussy about the keyboard ALWAYS being in perfect tune, the digital. If you want an easy to record instrument and or the function you get with MIDI, the digital. All that said, I prefer an acoustic for what I do. To me it's more organic, more responsive and I rather like that it has quirks, a personality, moods even. I immerse myself in the dynamic, tactile feedback of the hammer hitting the string and the whole box resonating according to the actions I perform. I don't operate another person's recording and engineering; I create my own sound with the tool in front of me. Romantic notions to be sure but that's me. Looking at it another way there's the issue of your musical goals. If you want to explore the world of piano music, the best way, still, is with the box or wood, wires and felt. If you're goal is to use the piano to write, record and perform pop, dance, singer songwriter or other forms of contemporary music you just might find it easier to do on the digital while still enjoying a nice piano sound when you need it. And if you happen to play some Bach or Satie on your digital, why, that's okay too.

Kurt

As I much prefer acoustic pianos over digital pianos, my ranking is the Kawai K-300 first, K-200 second and the Kawai CS10 third. The K-300, which was the K-3, was awarded the best acoustic piano accolade by Keyboard magazine for several years, 2008-2011. It is, in my opinion, the best sounding piano of the three.

Kind regards,

Robert.

+1 on the K300. I'm considering one for myself to add to the grand "just because". It's an exceptional instrument for the price and doesn't offer any major limitations in learning.

If you are serious about learning, you need an acoustic because so far digitals are not close enough. IMHO.
what you might want is a -cheap- quality slab digital like the yamaha 105 or whatever is the equivalent now that can be bought for about 500$ or less, a carrying bag and decent headphones to be able to practice in places where you might not have access to an acoustic.

Unfortunately I live in Amarillo, TX so there are no good piano dealers within 4 hours of here. The Yamaha dealer doesn't stock any acoustic pianos at all. One of their employees said they stopped carrying acoustics a couple of years ago because everyone buys digitals...of course they can order them, but who wants to buy a piano they haven't played?

As far as my goals, I just want to go as far as I can. I'm a life-long musician (guitar, ukulele, mandolin & violin) but very new to the piano. I don't need "the best" but that being said, playing music has been a part of my life from as early as I can remember so my ear is quite sensitive to the sound of a sub-par instrument. All of the used acoustics I've played around here sound terrible and are absolute trash. They sound far worse than any (even low end) digital out there that I've played. That's what really has prompted this post, I want to be sure that a K-200 or 300 really does sound better than the CS10.

When I set out on this piano hunt, I hadn't even considered a digital. An acoustic is what I really want but I'm not willing to sacrifice sound quality for anything.

I'd definitely go for an acoustic. I say after I found out that my digital (MP7) does not really satisfy me sound wise in the long term.

A Yamaha U1 or U3 would also be very good, as would a K2 or K3.

A piano dealer who does not stock any acoustics at all is highly suspicious to me.
Does he also employ qualified piano technicians?

If you really do not find any other piano store located close enough,
you could offer such a dealer, that he could bring an acoustic to your home at his own cost,
of which he thinks would suit your needs and price limits.
If you like it after a week, you would pay a predetermined price.
Otherwise the dealer has to carry it away again on his cost and bring on another one.

HTH

Here's another perspective...

If having an accurate acoustic tone is important, you should obviously go for an acoustic. However, the better digitals generally sample several concert grands as well as a number of other grands such as "Parlour Grand", Rock Grand, etc. In many ways the concert grands samples on an upper-end digital sound BETTER than most uprights.

The grand-emulating touch on many better digitals feels very much like a grand. Would they fool a blindfolded player....no. But whether a grand-emulating digital piano feels better than an upright is a judgement call that needs to be made by the shopper.

The CS10 is a great example of high-quality sampling couple with a good grand-emulating keyboard.

No way IMO. The sustain, ressonances, the body of the sound in the central octaves, the touch of a milenium action...
K series are in other world when compared to CS digitals.
As for durability, in ten years or less a CS will be dead or out-dated.

I wouldn't spend that much on a digital - generally a digital is a stepping stone to an acoustic (most people I've known who had them increasingly grew to want an acoustic). My experience is that they don't hold their values very well, either - particularly high end ones.

Sound quality - the acoustic will win unless you play it through serious speakers and amplification. A Church where I used to be organist, had a digital which always sounded poor (I'd prefer to play the old clunker acoustic in the corner) - until they put in a VERY expensive sound system (I think I counted at least 10 speakers) which transformed it, though I still preferred the real piano as it felt better.

The K-300 will be a better piano than a K-200, but it's incremental. There is ALWAYS a better piano - even if you buy the $1mill Steinway special edition. You need to choose where you will be content to park on the price-list. I have barely played the K2 previous model, but the K3 (previous model) was a nice piano when I played one a couple of years back.

As has been mentioned before, there are YAMAHA equivalents of both pianos - plus a myriad of other brands, some of which are newer in the market but which have been recognised as worthy of compare lately - I haven't tried the current crop of pianos, though.

I wouldn't rush your decision - I'm not sure of your locality, but could you consider a trip away to somewhere where you could try both pianos - and others if possible.