Last night I played until 1:30 and made some (unconclusive) comparissons between different AP EQ and blends I had already done: Concert "the twangy E" Grand 1; CG1/MellowG1 (layered 8:2 and then 2:8, and changing layer dynamics while moving from one to the other); CG2/MG2; MG1 alone.
Headphones on. String ress. up to 9, damper ress. up to 7.

Obviously, the clearest sound is CG1, but it lacks some sweetness in the central octave, no matter the voicing you choose. And, Jesus, that middle E kills me!
There goes the first blend, which I like a lot (CG1/MG1) but is a little confusing when the sustain is pressed or at forte passages (some weird rings and overtones that were already mentioned long before on this thread). Perhaps less string and damper ressonance would do the job, here. Playing without the pedal, highest string values are almost perfect, though.
MG1: the later into the night, the better it sounds. Just some less bass and bright1 voicing to avoid muddy chords.
CG2/MG2: mmmmmmmmm...Sweet and warm and dirty as can be, but again confusing. I'd swear it's from the previous sound generation (based in my ears). Dynamics are not that good, or detailed, overall volume is lower. I need to work more on this one!
If I have some time to kill this weekend, I threaten to perpetrate some recordings of the same piece on these different sounds.

Hi dmd and mabraman, Ive been reading your past few posts. I don't believe I am experiencing any metallic or twangy sound from middle E or F on my ES7. In fact it's very pleasing and seems right on especially in GC1. I am listening with my Sennheiser HD380PRO through Mackie 402VLZ3 Mixer.

However, Not sure if any of this is related: Im on my third ES7. Yes third, please read:
The first ES7 I bought had to be returned immediately because middle E was dead. The key mechanics worked fine just no sound. Dealer swapped it out instantly. My second ES7 had several sound issues that seemed in line with what you are discussing. Seemed like it sounded great with headphones I and was enjoying it immensely, however I ended up returning it again for three reasons; metallic "tinny" sounds on some keys via on board speakers - not too bad but noticable, distortion from left speaker area even at mid volume - drove me crazy, and eventually sustain stopped working even with a second new pedal - that's when i figured I had another lemon. So, brought it back again. Dealer was amazingly accommodating and gave me a THIRD ES7 in the box without hesitation - great dealer! This last ES7 I had for a month and it seems flawless and quite different from the past two. The on board speakers seem much better than the past two; very clear, better tone, handles low end nicely even near full volume - almost can keep up with a CP300... I said almost. But like a CP300 you can feel the vibration/resonance in your fingers when playing. The sound via headphones even seems much clearer and powerful pushing the headphones even without the Mackie. So, maybe this last ES7 was off a different production run than the other two, a question for Kawai James perhaps.

Nevertheless, maybe my middle E and F might sound the same as yours and my ears are not picking up on it. So, if you want me to post some sounds to compare let me know and I can try to tap a few keys that you have in question. Im new at this (recording/posting) so please be patient if needed.

Thanks for the info, Marco, and good luck with your third one (wow).
Mine works well so far, though not perfectly if I think of some sounds. Speakers, as I said, seem like a good radio-casette from the 80s' to me. And there are some weird ressonances via speakers (I guess they are phasey sounds coming from the board), but this will be another chapter to write, at the risk of James calling me Mabra-moan .

Ha! I think James has earned the right to goof on all of us for all the whining we do.

True, but we (specially you!) have all the right to complain. Our money is never deffective, is it?

By the way, what I hear is:

-CG1 : middle E natural (central scale) sounds more metallic than expected when playing mezzoforte, it has a twangy tone that might be desirable if ff played, but this is not the case. Adjacent notes sound fine, and so the other 87 as far as I know.
-Studio Grand 1: same, but for the central F and F#, now. As the whole tone of it is quite twangy (at default values) it isn't so evident, but it's there.
-Mellows: it doesn't happen, here, I can't recall any key sounding unbalanced in tone or volume all across the keybed.

And finally, as other mentioned earlier in this thread, there's an overall ringy feeling when you go at it full swing. My guess is, blame it on PHI sympathetic ressonance algorithms (so turning ressonances down should work).

Have you messed around with temperament key setting for E and F just to see if tweaking it makes any difference.

Speaking of temperament, I actually like the Werkmeister preset. Has an honest genuine sound about it. I go to it often.

I entered the menu once, just to see if it worked
But thanks for your advice, I'll give it a try tonight.

With regards to wide stretch, mentioned some posts above, I find it interesting, perhaps a little too cold, but haven't played very much with it.

Hi marbraman, The E and F on my es7 sound fine,I know the note,s seemed more ringy and muddier befor I did the up grade on my foot pedal. I forget wat its called but is updated fom a 10 to a 12. Now all the notes on my piano are nice and clean sounding.

Go here for latest v1.13 update:

http://www.kawai.co.jp/worldwide/support/updates.html

Thanks Marko, I updated to v1.13 , I made a mistake and said 12,actually I had some one else update it for me since Im a little slow with computers. I still think this is one of the most natural sounding piano,s out there.

It's not about an update, as I had already done so months ago. But thanks anyway.
And yes, it sounds well. I have just come from my music school, where I have practiced for an hour on an upright (guess the make?) which sounds way worse than ES7 and has sticky keys. Now, mine seems a Bossendorfer.

Do Yamaha do upgrades for their digitals?

It's OT, but yes.

So, it seems that most of us agree on going with the mellow piano and a bright voicing other than using the concert grand with a mellow voice...

I used the CG sound for a couple months now and started toying with the mellow piano a week ago... now whenever I go to the CG patch sounds really cold to me.

I have tried layering 2 pianos but did not like the output.

Regarding some sound "unevenness" on certain keys... I feel that the whole octave or so around F2 to F3 sounds a bit dry compared to the rest of the "zones" especially on concert grand. I take it as part of the "character" of this particular Digital.

I love this piano.

New ES7 video demo from Kraft Music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VG9wsKTOUwA

Hi, Kawai users! Excuse me for being a little bit off topic. I am in search of a good digital piano mostly for playing classical piano music and Kawai ES7 is at the top of my preference list. Additional pedals, solid piano stand and music stand for ES7 are also needed. So the total price here will be close to the price of Kawai CN 34. My question - how Es7 is compared to CN 34 in terms of piano sound and touch and is it really worth going for a portable es 7 at a price of full CN 34? Thank you!

Hi EtwasBewegter, Clink the link below. This thread might you decide which is best for you.

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2009953/Kawai%20CN34%20versus%20ES7.html

Nice EP demo on the ES7