Kawai ES120 Digital Stage Piano, Black - Ex Demo

Full Description

Better looks

Kawai has gone back to the drawing board with this piano. They have redesigned the control panel on the instrument, with the previous button design completely replaced by a stylish, polished bar design with rectangular buttons. The volume slider has been indented so it matches your finger shape, and the rest of the buttons have been made larger and given a tactile response. A dedicated Bluetooth button now simplifies the process of pairing with your compatible devices.

The polished bar design continues across the whole length of the keyboard, unifying the buttons with the design of the keyboard and adding to the sleek overall look of the ES120. The curved and rounded edges make this stage piano more sleek and streamlined, yet reminiscent of classic acoustic piano designs.

Better action

Kawai takes great care and pride in their hammer action across all of their pianos. As a result, the action is often one of the main reasons you would want a Kawai piano. The feel is almost precisely that of an acoustic piano. This is important when you are practising away from an acoustic piano but still need to be prepared for the touch and action of one.

You may have thought it was impossible to improve on the action of an introductory model like the ES110, but the ES120 Kawai has managed it. They have improved the cushioning material between the hammer and keys, reducing the noise when releasing keys by approximately 10 - a great improvement for a smooth playing experience.

More sounds than ever before

Previously, the higher level stage pianos from Kawai - the ES520 and ES920 - had a sampled Shigeru Kawai EX grand piano available. This is now included in the introductory ES120. You can now access the unique and powerful tone of the SK-EX grand piano. The Kawai K-60 upright piano has been included as well, which makes three fantastically sampled and high-quality pianos inside one digital piano. All are encoded with the same Harmonic Imaging technology that Kawai uses in all their digital pianos.

All the other sounds you have come to know and love in this piano have also been improved. Again, Kawai has included the sounds from the mid-range ES520 in the ES120, making higher quality sampling more accessible than ever before.

Improved sound and tone

Kawai has improved the Virtual Technician functionality by adding several presets which can alter the character in a single button press. The amount of reverbs has been doubled to six modelled spaces. In addition to the existing room, small hall and concert hall reverbs, the ES120 now includes a lounge, live hall, and a cathedral reverb.

Kawai have developed a new feature called Low Volume Balance. This intelligently adjusts the piano characteristics to assist low volume playing. As a result, a smoother, more expressive playing experience is achieved when playing at softer dynamics. There are five adjustment types, and if you are not wanting to use this feature then it can also be disabled.

Redesigned speakers

What's the use of all these improvements if you can't hear them? Fortunately, Kawai has also improved the speakers on the ES120, boosting the overall power of the combined speakers from 14W to 20W. That's a 42 increase!

If you prefer to listen through headphones, then Kawai has also made improvements in that department. With Spatial Headphone Sound, the ES120 can now more accurately simulate the sound of a real piano through your headphones. You can now enjoy a more open and natural sound that is less fatiguing on the ears. You can make sure you get the ultimate experience by setting the ES120 to optimise the sounds for various headphone types.

Better connection

With Bluetooth audio, you can now play audio from your phone or tablet through your piano speakers. You can practice piano against any backing track you want. You can also watch piano lesson videos through Bluetooth too. All this without any need for cables or adaptors.

Kawai have also simplified the MIDI hardware connections. The ES110 had two MIDI DIN ports for in and out signals, now the ES120 has a single USB type B connector. This makes connecting your keyboard to a computer for MIDI functionality very simple and removes the need for a separate MIDI interface.

Many types of pedals are also supported. The F-1SP switch pedal is included with your piano when you purchase it. There are also other pedals such as the separate 1-10H or GFP3, the F-351 is the integrated pedal board that fits with the HML-2 stand.

Free 3 month trial of Skoove, Tomplay & Zapiano

Kawai pianos come complete with a free 3-month trial of Skoove, Tomplay, and a free introductory course with Zapiano. These apps are a great way to improve your playing with access to lessons, sheet music, and interactive feedback, so you can take your playing to the next level. Simply register your new Kawai piano on the Kawai website to claim your trials and find out more.

Specifications

• Keyboard: Responsive Hammer Compact (RHC) action 88 weighted keys
• Polyphony: max. 192 notes
• Sounds: 25 sounds
• Metronome: 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 3/8, 6/8 beat + 100 drum rhythms
• Internal Recorder: 3 songs – approximately 15,000 note memory capacity
• Internal Songs: Demo Songs: 16 songs
• Phones Settings: Spatial Headphone Sound (SHS), Phones Type
• Bluetooth MIDI: Bluetooth (Ver. 5.0 GATT-compatible) / Bluetooth Low Energy MIDI Specification-compliant AUDIO: Bluetooth (Ver. 5.1 A2DP-compatible)
• Other Functions: Registration Memories, Dual, Split, Reverb, Damper Resonance, Brilliance, Voicing, Touch Curve, Fall-back Noise, Damper Noise, Effects, Smart Mode, Transpose, Tuning, Temperament, Temperament Key, Low Volume Balance, Speaker EQ, Speaker On/Off, Auto Power Off, Factory Reset, Startup Settings, MIDI Settings
• Pedal: F-1SP switch pedal (included)
• Compatible with: F-10H damper pedal, GFP-3 triple pedal unit, F-351 triple pedal board accessories
• Jacks: Headphones x 2 (1/4", 1/8"), LINE OUT (1/4" L/MONO, R), USB to Host, DAMPER, PEDAL
• Output Power: 10 W + 10 W
• Speakers: 12 cm x 2
• Power Consumption: 9 W (PS-129 AC adaptor)
• Dimensions: 1305 (W) x 280 (D) x 150 (H) mm 51 3/8" (W) x 11" (D) x 6" (H)
• Weight: 12.5 kg / 27 3/5 lbs.