Product Comparison: Kawai CE220 vs Kawai ES8

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Kawai CE220 Digital Piano

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Kawai ES8 Digital Piano

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General Specifications

Brand

Kawai

Model

CE220

ES8

Origin

Japan

About the Product

Featuring our famous wooden-key action, the CE220 digital piano offers the finest touch available in a digital piano. With 88-key piano sampling, plus a rugged, yet beautiful cabinet, the CE220 is a great choice in a high-quality digital piano.

Regardless of whether you’re playing on stage, practicing for a recital, accompanying the church choir or studying in the classroom, the new Kawai ES8 is portable piano perfection. Versatile and powerful, the ES8 is a compact, elegant and highly portable digital piano, one for truly every musical occasion… anytime, anywhere.

Key Specs

Number Of Keys

Key Size

Full-Size

Number Of Sound Effects

Number Of Tunes/Songs

Polyphony

192 notes

256 notes

What customers say about "Key Specs"

Kawai CE220 Digital Piano

I have been very impressed with the quality of the sounds. There are three piano types to select from plus a bunch of other instruments. The piano sounds are impressively realistic. And it looks like a real piano too.
But from the lowest to the highest note, the sound fidelity is truly impressive. The ability to SPLIT or LAYER the sounds is fantastic. It allows so much more flexibility, versatility and fun.
What I DO like is the looks, the feel, and the sound quality of the piano, electric piano, church organ and draw bar organ. The sound quality is really good.
It is Simple and Easy to use. 192 polyphony makes much better simulating as a real piano sound.
The keys are made of wood and have great action. The piano sound is very realistic. It also looks nice.
The strings and choir are good in the mid range, but loses the tone on the lower and higher end of the keyboard. The drum selection is very good, but you have to set it every time you play (there are 100 tracks).

Kawai ES8 Digital Piano

I considered a Yamaha digital piano but the Kawai polyphony at 256 vs.128 on most Yamaha's was the deal maker.
Also - the built in rhythms are tasteful and not over the top - usable to produce an acoustic sort of sound - little bit of rhythm guitar here and there, sometimes light strings - but no brass or bombastic arrangements.
I like a piano that sounds like a piano - and has good dynamic range - sounding soft (with hammers voice for a mellow tone) at pp and with bite at ff - this piano does it for me.
Action feels great. Piano sounds are complex and excellent.
Sounds in the ES8 are incredibly good. I rate the piano sounds equal or even better vs the Ravenscroft IOS and PC sample apps.

Size & Weight

Height

34 in.

6 in.

Width

55 in.

54 in.

Depth

20 in.

14.5 in.

Weight

137 lbs.

49 lbs.

What customers say about "Size & Weight"

Kawai CE220 Digital Piano

I was able to put the piano together by myself and found it relatively simple. However, a word of caution. The top is VERY, VERY heavy. So I highly suggest getting two strong people to move it and to lift it into place.
It's not tremendously heavy, but due to the size, you'll definitely need two people to move it. Assembly itself is a breeze.
It is heavy and need two people to set it up (actually just for the final lift).
It was the heavy keyboard that was a struggle. I used many chairs and took many breaks to set this up. Learn from my mistake. Do not do this alone (it's in the instructions too)

Kawai ES8 Digital Piano

Its heavy, which is also good, because it feels substantial when playing if you know what I mean.
It is probably on the heavy side for gigging at 65lbs. But I don't move it much. On the plus side, it's built like a tank and is probably almost indestructible, though I don't plan to do extensive drop tests! !
portable - The keyboard is a little bit heavy. This may be good as far as ruggedness goes but it makes it a challenging for a little ole church lady to put in her car to take to a tea or something.
Hammer feeling is great, but keys are a bit noisy after a while.

Features

Keyboard Sensitivity

Light 1/2, Normal, Heavy 1/2, off, User

Light 1/2, Normal, Heavy 1/2, USER 1/2, off

Pedals

3 pedals: Sustain (with half-pedal support), Soft, Sostenuto

F10H Sustain Pedal with Half-Damper function included

Digital Effects

Yes

Metronome Included

Yes

MIDI

Yes

Recording Feature

3 song, 2 track recorder – approximately 15,000 note memory capacity

10 Song / 2-Track Recorder, Approximately 90,000 notes memory

USB Port(s)

Number Of Headphone Jacks

Integrated Speaker(s)

Yes

Additional Accessories Included

Headphone Hook

Metall music rack, AC-adapter, F-10H Damper Pedal

Extras

Beautiful Premium Satin Black Finish, Sliding Key Cover and Matching Bench, 4-Hand Mode, Split-Mode, Dual-Mode, Wooden Keys, Graded Hammer, AWA PRO II Action, Sound Source: Progressive Harmonic Imaging™ (PHI)

Ivory Touch surface, Responsive Hammer III (RHIII) action with Let-Off simulation and 3 Sensors per key, Amp Simulator: S.Case I, S.Case II, L.Cabinet - each with Drive, Level, EQ Low, EQ High, Dual-Mode, Split-Mode, Accompaniment: 100 Rhythms with Variation (Drums, Bass, Backing), Auto Fill-In, One Finger Ad-Lib Phrasen, Auto Chord Progression, Full Keyboard and One-Finger-Mode, 16 x 2 Character (LCD), 28 registration memories, 4-Hand Mode

What customers say about "Features"

Kawai CE220 Digital Piano

I'm not a piano player, but I've messed around on them enough to know that the feel on this is quite realistic, and the various sensitivity levels are a bonus, allowing them to be set for little fingers just learning to play and then adjusted over time as strength and skill improves.
Great for our casual piano playing- super realistic touch and sound. Also a beautiful piece for the living room
Keyboard touch sensitivity was very impressive. made with real wood, solid. not a plastic junk.
Because there is no LCD display, only a 2-digit LED and various LEDs on the function buttons, some of the features are not intuitive to set and require referencing the manual -- at least at first. None are difficult to set, just unintuitive until you memorize them.
I thought it had an auto accompaniment feature, but it doesn't. That was a bit disappointing.

Kawai ES8 Digital Piano

The keyboard sounds amazing, and I have found nothing wrong with the piano. They also include the sustain pedal.
The ES8 SK5 patch with dynamic voicing, and a little hammer delay for the very soft playing, is VERY warm and realistic.
The onboard speakers (15wx2) aren't very big, but they are ported underneath (the point straight up) for a little bass and enough for a small restaurant gig without external amplification.
The chord scanning works very well so you can play a chart and have the keyboard follow the changes without too much effort.
Keyboard feel is nice - I like a heavy action - this one lighter than the P80 but heavy enough for a person who plays acoustic piano.

Warranty / Certifications

Manufacturer Warranty

3 year(s)

Certifications

FCC

Other Information

Manufacturer

Link

Manual

Download

MSRP

2199 $