VooVoo:

Tks, anyone know if it is possible to get any more disc off the retail price at Robert?


They quoted $8385 for K3 and $10390 for K5. Not even giving. Full piano cover.

having in mind robert piano is the only dealer of kawai, they are in position not to budge when they see you have fallen in love with their product

If I remember correctly, the price difference between the k5 and k6 is 1k+, but the k6 sounds much sweeyer, has more personality. Btw, i found that the pianos at robert piano at milennia sound much nicer than the same models at centerpoint.

I went to yamaha and kawai a few days back. i found kawai sounds more calm, less harsh. like yamaha, kawai also having gss promo now. K6 (131 cm) is now 11.6k. it has a sweet, petite, lady like sound. but the touch… i think petrof is still better…

Btw, stumble upon a posting about kawai from dreamaurora in all about piano. additionally, yamaha sale bringing down price of u3 and yus1 closer to 10k

Dreamaurora:

Okay, I am going to post some brief reviews of pianos I tested on Robert Piano's Centerpoint branch last week. Note that all the pianos I tested were brand new and as such my opinions should not be applied to 2nd hand models of the same models.


First, the Kawai pianos.

Kawai K2
Made in Indonesia. An entry level Kawai costing around 5K+. The feel and sound is strangely very unKawai like and more Yamaha instead. In fact, if I've never seen the brand, I would have thought it was a Yamaha instead. Touch is not heavy and sound is bright and sweet. Easy to play and easy to get good tone out it. You may want to get this if you like Yamaha sound but die die want to get Kawai instead.

Kawai KX
Made in China. Another entry level Kawai costing around 5K also. I prefer this to the K2 as the tone is closer to Japanese Kawai. Sound is semi dark and sweet. It is not that easy to play but not that hard to play also. Good choice as a 1st piano.

Kawai K3
Made in Japan. The direct rival to Yamaha's U1. In terms of build quality, action and tone I think K3 is superior to its Yamaha counterpart. But the catch is like most Japan Kawai it needs some decent technique to produce good tone out of it since by default the K3 sounds quite dark and a bit dull. So the question is K3 or U1? K3 will be more suitable for students who are more serious and want to achieve a wider variety of tonal control whereas U1 will appeal to students who want to enjoy practicing and playing more.

Kawai K8
Made in Japan. The spiritual successor to Kawai's K80. Direct rival to Yamaha's YUS5. The tone of this piano is even darker than K3, but the sound is significantly fuller and the action more refined. And compared to YUS5, it actually sounds like a grand. But the learning curve for this piano is even higher than K3 and I would definitely recommend this piano for serious students as this piano can last all the way to the diplomas. I never had any problem playing on actual grand pianos because I feel K8/K80s are actually even harder to play. But if you don't want to turn every practice session into a mighty struggle with the piano you may want to consider YUS5 instead which is definitely a more fun piano to play. I personally own a K80 and I love it and still practice on it everyday.

Kawai GM10
Made in Indonesia. The budget baby grand model in Kawai's lineup. This piano puzzles me. The action and tone are actually inferior to K8. The one I played in the showroom had floaty actions that just make finer details almost impossible to achieve. I did feedback to the salesman about this and hopefully this is just a tuning issue. But as for now, I would not recommend this piano at all and would advise students to either stick to the cheaper K8 upright grand or top up more for RX1.

Kawai RX1
Made in Japan. The first model in the the professional RX series and its direct rival would be Yamaha C1. This piano represents a significant step up from the K8. The tone is a perfect blend of darkness and sweetness and the actions are very precise. I smiled when I played it as the piano understood all my musical intentions and executed them exactly as I heard them in my mind. Definitely a worthy investment for any serious students. Yamaha C1 is excellent as well, so the choice here will come down to personal preference of the tones.

Moutrie 121, 122, and 125
Made in China. I tried all three and each of them is quite different from one another. 121 has a dark tone that is very similar to K3 and K8. The action is good and the sound has good punch for its size. The downside is the same as K3 and K8; need to work to get good tone out of it. 122 and 125 are brighter and sweeter, but the two units I tested seemed to have some tone balance issues. The bass notes sounded hollow and I feedback this to the salesman to see if it can be fixed by tuning. For a cheap price of 4K+, you can get Moutrie 121, which is a very attractive alternative for K3. Good choise as 1st piano for students who are more hardworking.

Thank for sharing sautille. Like dreamaurora, i am too puzzled now.

Abt being the european piano… how to check then?!
Btw, have you ever consider Korean instead of Japanese?
Saw an Albert Weber 131 cm at Cristofori, made by Youngchang.
I thought Yamaha u3 (or kawai k5) is highly overpriced in comparison to this one…
On the other hand, Yamaha may retain better resale value and sustain more quality over time (maybe?)

Thank for sharing sautille. Like dreamaurora, i am too puzzled now.

Abt being the european piano… how to check then?!
Btw, have you ever consider Korean instead of Japanese?
Saw an Albert Weber 131 cm at Cristofori, made by Youngchang.
I thought Yamaha u3 (or kawai k5) is highly overpriced in comparison to this one…
On the other hand, Yamaha may retain better resale value and sustain more quality over time (maybe?)

Thank for sharing sautille. Like dreamaurora, i am too puzzled now.

Abt being the european piano… how to check then?!
Btw, have you ever consider Korean instead of Japanese?
Saw an Albert Weber 131 cm at Cristofori, made by Youngchang.
I thought Yamaha u3 (or kawai k5) is highly overpriced in comparison to this one…
On the other hand, Yamaha may retain better resale value and sustain more quality over time (maybe?)

Hi sautille

have you got your piano? Would you mind sharing which one did yoi get?
I called gramercy but they told me that bohemia upright is no longer in production?!

Thanks a lot for the info.

Cheers, Rina