Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards My opinion of the Kawai ES8 after 2 months

ElmerJFudd,
Yes, but the the ES8 has built in speakers, whereas the RD-800 requires at least headphones or more likely separate speakers/monitors. That can be a considerable extra expense if you don't already have them. These boards aren't really targeting the same demographic. While the ES8 gives you the built in speakers, the RD800 gives you hundreds more sounds and lots of other features that may or may not be useful depending on your needs. I think the RD800 compares more with the MP7 than the ES8

Those the ES8 has midi máster keyboard features?

No.

Hi James no problems at all. I am sorry to go slightly off topic here but thought you would be the best person to ask.

I am still using my es6 stand which I think is known as a Kawai HM-4 , my question is can I still attach the Kawai F-301 3 pedal unit to this stand if I purchase ?

The hm-4 is not perfect for my ES8 as can no longer use the screws to fully secure but still looks perfectly fine and stable and was hoping to save having to buy the latest stand in order to add the 3 pedal unit.

Thanks in advance .

Ryan

Had my ES8 for a few months now (my first Kawai) and can concur with all the positive comments above. No regrets at all.
Just want to get down and play it whenever possible. I'm still finding new sound combinations I love for certain types of music.
The only issue for me is that I still feel I have issues with my Grado headphones I use with it. I must try to find a way to resolve that, as there are certain unwanted resonances that i am getting.
Other than that it still looks fantastic, feels great to the touch and sounds wonderful.
Just hope i don't accidentally play a CA97 or something, but I cant afford the cost or the space.
Have fun

Hello Ryan,



Hmmm...that's a good question!

Please note that the ES6 stand was actually known as the HM-3II, while the ES7/ES8 stand is known as the HM-4. Can you confirm which stand model you're using, please?



Ah, in that case it is most likely an HM-3II. It's quite easy to check as the older stand does not have the rounded, slightly extruding arms on the front which align with the the base of the ES7/ES8:

ES7/ES8 + HM-4


ES6 + HM-3II


(note that I have adjusted the brightness/contrast of the images above to make the differences more visible)

Now, as for whether it's possible to physically attach the older HM-3II stand to the current F-301 pedal unit, according to my colleagues in R&D, the screw holes (between the stand and pedal unit) do align. However, as the stand cannot be secured to the ES8, it's likely that the same will be true for the pedals. So while it may be possible to use this setup, it's not really recommended as neither the stand nor pedals will be secured to the ES8 itself.

While you are obviously free to purchase the F-301 pedal unit, please do not expect the complete setup to be stable. My recommendation would be to purchase the correct HM-4 stand to ensure stability and security.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
James
x

Thanks Steve!

Thank you James for the reply and effort as always . It's the HM3 I have from my es6 days so I totally agree with what you are saying and know myself probably best to buy the correct stand and package .

The wife will be none the wiser as almost identical looking stand and as for the 3 pedal setup I can't see her clicking on to that like me with all her shopping you just lose track 😉

It is a fantastic piano, and I am enjoying it very much. The problem is that the top 18 keys are on permanent sustain: after fall-back, these keys do not damp! The sustain pedal makes little or no difference.

Is there an internal fix? Or should I replace the whole unit?

It's not faulty. Acoustic pianos do this because there are no dampers on the top notes. The strings are so short that they don't sustain very long and they are always free to resonate in sympathy with other played notes. All digital pianos mimic this correct behaviour.

But then two other forum members replied to your post on the other ES8 thread on 16th July saying the same thing but you didn't acknowledge their responses.

This is because these have no dampers:

Some do it a lot better than others. Mine is only just evident. Nothing like what you'd find on an acoustic.

I worded my reply poorly. I didn't mean to imply that all digital pianos mimic the sympathetic resonance (some do, most don't do it very well and some older or entry level ones don't do it at all). I was trying to point out that ALL DPs replicate the absence of dampers on the top notes.

Arpeggiator:

Words are importatant. You said "permanent sustain". That actually means, once you play one of the top 18 notes, it continues to sound until you turn the DP off. Surely this is not what you meant.

Others have mentioned that the upper notes on an AP are undamped, meaning that they continue to sound for a short time after being played. This is also done on a DP. You really should try playing a 'real' piano. Then you would know what comparisons to make between a DP and an AP.

In addition to sounding when the upper notes are played, they also sound when excited sympathetically by other notes on the piano. This adds richness to the partial structure.

Hope this answers your question, the answer being, don't replace the whole unit unless you enjoy shopping.

Please ignore - didn't see that the answer was already given.

Are you serious? This is by design, to replicate real acoustic pianos where the top keys are not damped...

Geez, this question comes up literally once a week! The top notes on a piano are supposed to behave this way - it's the way acoustic pianos are made. The highest notes are so short in duration anyway, they don't put a damper mechanism in them.

Several folks have put me right: on a normal piano, the topmost strings remain undamped, so the Kawai ES-8 is emulating the way a real piano functions. Being new to a real-sounding digital piano, I had imagined it was a bug!

Thanks for the insights people, I am fast learning!

I played acoustic piano for years, and never noticed this phenomenon at all, until someone mentioned it here