High-end all-in-one portable digital pianos have been increasing in popularity for quite some time now, and it’s pretty easy to see why. Top-of-the-line stage pianos are of course not getting anywhere, but the idea of a professional quality keyboard with built-in speakers, great sound, and weighted keys makes a lot of sense for a lot of people.
Today we’re going to compare two of the three most popular professional all-in-one portable digital pianos on the market (with the Roland FP90 being the third) as we look at the P-Series Yamaha P515 vs Kawai ES8 from their ES lineup.
These two pianos are priced very close to one another and serve the exact same part of the market. As a result, they are direct competitors so odds are if you’re looking for a nice portable digital piano with onboard speakers, you’re very likely to have both of these pianos on your shortlist.
Be sure to check out the companion video to hear these pianos in action for yourself.
Piano Sounds: Yamaha P515 vs Kawai ES8
Let’s start by comparing the sound engines. The piano sound is one of the most critical aspects of any digital piano, and when discussing high-end instruments like these where overall features and functionality are pretty much a wash, the sound comparison becomes that much more important.
In the case of pianos, we’re dealing with superb sound engines – it’s certainly not fair to say one easily outguns the other. Instead, it’s really going to come down to which piano sound you happen to connect with more.
Kawai’s Harmonic Imaging XL
The Kawai ES8 is equipped with Kawai’s highly regarded Harmonic Imaging XL (HIXL) engine, the core of which is built around a piano sample of their Shigeru Kawai SKEX, though there are also high-quality samples of their EX concert grand piano and Shigeru Kawai SK-5. These are all 88-note, individually sampled engines brimming without detail and the individual note sampling means there’s no note stretching going on.
Yamaha’s CFX & Bosendorfer Imperial
Over on the Yamaha P515, we’ve got a sample of the legendary Bosendorfer Imperial piano as well as a sample of their CFX Grand, both of which are also 88-note individual samples. These samples incorporate Yamaha’s Virtual Resonance Modeling (VRM) for some extra synthesis, as well as the Stereophonic Optimizer, Binaural Sampling, and Sound Boost for extra power.
Polyphony
Polyphony is even on both pianos at 256 notes which is pretty much as high as it gets from a sample-based engine before jumping to a modeled engine that has the potential to offer limitless polyphony.
256-note polyphony is plenty – you won’t have to worry about notes dropping away on either of these pianos regardless of how busy you get.
Musical Observations
Let’s start by comparing the acoustic piano sounds – for most users, the primary focus is going to be an authentic acoustic grand sound that’s able to adequately replicate the acoustic piano playing experience. Flip over to the video if you’d like to hear this comparison for yourself.
It’s apparent right after playing both pianos that the sound engines do sound quite different from one another. The Yamaha P515 is definitely producing a brighter sound, while the ES8 certainly has a far darker tone, especially in the mid-range, but the treble still manages to be super clear.
The attack, particularly in the treble, tends to be more direct and crisp on the P515 with lots of fundamentals but a lack of complexity at the same time.
The sound quality is great with both instruments, but we’re definitely hearing a more detailed, complex tone over on the ES8.
Yamaha’s Piano Room & Kawai’s Virtual Technician
In terms of the ability to modify that sound on both the P515 and ES8, both pianos give the user a lot of options.
Over on the P515, Yamaha calls this feature the Piano Room, and this allows you to modify things like the lid position, brightness, touch sensitivity, reverb, master tuning, key-off samples, aliquot resonance, body resonance, and string resonance.
On the Kawai ES8, we have essentially the same thing, which Kawai refers to as their Virtual Technician. Some of the editable effects available here include touch curve, voicing, damper resonance, damper noise, string resonance, key-off effect, fallback noise, hammer delay, top board, decay, minimum touch temperament, stretch tuning, user key volumes, half-pedalling adjustments.
Other Sounds
Moving onto the non-acoustic piano sounds and both pianos have a solid stable of additional presets, though there are certainly far more on the P515. For context, the ES8 has 34 total sounds, while the P515 has 40 core sounds, plus 480 XG voices, which are essentially like General MIDI 2.
If you need that huge variety of sounds here, the P515 looks pretty compelling here. That said, the quantity of high-quality core sounds is of course much closer with only 6 more on the P515.
The first of these core sounds is a selection of electric pianos, and both the P515 and ES8 are very strong in this regard.
Both pianos also have some really solid organs to choose from, these tend to sound more realistic on the ES8. Other core sounds include things like strings, choir, vibes, and others.
Navigating the various sounds is a little bit easier on the P515 due to a larger LCD display – the ES8 has an LCD display as well, but it’s just smaller.
Speaker Comparison
The P515 and ES8 both have a high-quality set of built-in speakers. The P515 has a 4-speaker system with 40 watts of amplifier power, compared to a dual speaker system and 30 watts of power on the ES8.
Despite this rated power output difference, in terms of actual power, they sound pretty much the same when the volume is cranked.
Piano Action: Yamaha P515 vs Kawai ES8
Let’s dive into the actions on both pianos. As important as piano sound is, action is pretty close, if not more important for some people depending on their priorities.
If you’ve got an action that feels great, it’s going to make you want to practice. On the other hand, if you’ve got an action that is simply unsatisfying, it doesn’t matter how good the tone is, as the action will mechanically get in the way of enjoying the musical instrument.
Yamaha’s Natural Wood X vs Kawai’s Responsive Hammer III
The P515 is equipped with Yamaha’s Natural Wood X action (NWX) while the ES8 is outfitted with Kawai’s Responsive Hammer III (RHIII) action. Given that these pianos directly compete in the same price range you might assume that their actions are quite similar, however, this is far from the case.
In fact, these actions do not feel anything like one another, to the point that it’s actually quite shocking to play them side by side. The NWX features wooden keys while the RHIII is plastic, but interestingly, this isn’t why they feel so different.
The first big difference that jumps out is the weighting, as in, the amount of force it takes to get the key in motion. On an upright piano, for example, it should take somewhere between 45 to 55 grams to put the key in motion. On a grand piano, the range is about 50 to 60.
We haven’t gone so far as to measure this out, but we would guess that the Yamaha P-515’s NWX action is well above 60 grams as it feels substantially heavier than what one would get even on a grand piano.
The RHIII on the other hand is right down the middle in terms of its weighting, but when compared to the NWX, it feels considerably lighter.
Escapement
This brings us to the second big point of departure, which is the feature of an escapement. Both piano actions feature escapement, or as it’s also known, let-off, and this essentially simulates the feeling you get when playing a grand piano action. where there’s a lip about 2/3 of the way down where the key resets.
On the Kawai ES8, the escapement is very apparent. Over on the P515, it’s really not apparent, to the point that we had to double-check the specs sheet.
Textured Key Tops
The third significant difference is in the tactile touch of the keytops themselves with regard to the texture. Both piano actions feature textured synthetic ivory white keys, but the texture is much more exaggerated on the ES8.
Over on the black keys, both sets of keytops are again textured with synthetic ebony but in this case, the P515’s black keys feel more textured.
This might seem like a really granular observation, but it is very noticeable and has the potential to impact one’s overall enjoyment of the action depending on their preference.
Triple Sensor Key Detection
Underneath the hood, we’ve got triple sensor key detection in both actions so the MIDI output is highly accurate in both cases.
Keyboard Action Wrap Up
Action is not something that you want to gloss over when you’re comparing these pianos. Of course, we always recommend carefully considering the action of the piano you plan to purchase, but in the case of this comparison, it’s especially important.
These two actions feel so different, especially from a weighting perspective, to the point that you’re very likely going to have a strong, immediate preference for one or the other.
Yamaha P515 vs Kawai ES8 | Features & Connectivity
Accessories
Both pianos are fairly similar in size and come in a basic slab format with a single sustain pedal, however, both are compatible with matching designer keyboard stands and triple pedal units for anyone looking for a more stationary instrument.
Out of the box, the included sustain pedal is a high-quality damper pedal in both cases, and this is great as no upgrade is necessary even if you’re looking at either of these as a professional gigging instrument.
Both pianos include a music rest in the box at no extra charge.
Connectivity
Both pianos have a solid offering in terms of connectivity ports. Critically, both pianos have 1/4” Aux Out ports so connecting to an amplifier or external speaker for performance purposes is no problem at all.
From there, they both also have Aux In, dual headphone jacks, MIDI In and Out, USB to Host, USB to Device, and of course, a jack for your power supply adapter.
The Kawai ES8 does not have any Bluetooth connectivity, while the P515 has Bluetooth Audio by virtue of being a newer instrument.
In terms of accessing apps on your iPad, other iOS devices, or Android devices such as the Yamaha Smart Pianist App which can actually convert songs from your iOS device’s music library into chord charts for you, you’ll need to use the USB connection.
Auto-Accompaniment
Both pianos have a really solid onboard rhythm and accompaniment function that’s good enough for use in professional playing situations.
This feature is also just plain old fun, and you can also control which of the various accompanying instruments get activated, such as bass, guitar, and drums.
On-board Audio Recording & Other Functions
Both pianos also have USB recording functionality. This is great because you have the option of recording WAV audio straight onto a USB key for playback later.
Other standard functions such as a metronome, transpose, split, layer, and so on are covered on both as well.
The Yamaha P515 has one additional feature, a sequencer, which may be important for so.
Closing Thoughts
Thanks so much for joining us for this article, and hopefully you checked out the companion video as well.
As we often say, at the end of the day, when comparing two similar instruments such as these, it’s really ideal to try to play and experience both for yourself.
This is extra true for this comparison because these two specs out so close to one another, yet offer totally diverging musical experiences.
Like most Yamaha digital pianos, especially their Clavinova series, the P515 has a bright sound engine and also a very heavy action.
The Kawai ES8 is comparatively much warmer sounding and features a substantially lighter action. These make for really big differences that will definitely be apparent to anyone with the opportunity to play both of these pianos.
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