REVIEW - Kawai CE220 Digital Piano - Outstanding for its Lower Price!

The new Kawai CE220 digital piano is a WINNER! - The Kawai Piano company of Japan has been producing  fine acoustic & digital pianos for many years and they seem to build better and more competitive pianos every year. They are recognized as a leader in building exceptional instruments for recreational players, students, and professionals throughout the world. Kawai has been offering a particular furniture cabinet digital piano called the CE200 ($1699 internet price) which has been out for about 5 or 6 years now and this model has been a very successful instrument for them. The CE200 is now discontinued and no longer available. So it comes as no surprise to me that Kawai has done a major update on that model after all this time, and this new model is called the Kawai CE220 ($1899 internet price, above left pic)....and they have really outdone themselves for this price range.

This new CE220 furniture cabinet piano was just introduced on January 19, 2012 and I have spent a great deal of time already playing this piano and was extremely impressed with what I experienced. The first major upgrade from the previous model that I noticed right away when playing it was the piano sound itself. The CE220 is utilizing the same piano technology found in their higher priced CN43 ($2950 internet price in black finish). This highly upgraded technology includes 192-notes of polyphony (WOW!) as well as the grand piano sound source called Progressive Harmonic Imaging with 88-key individual piano sampling going through a stereo 40-watt built-in speaker system (which is sufficient power for most homes). To put this upgrade in simple terms, the piano sound and realism of dynamics, expression, and detail is spectacular, especially for the low price, and you really think you are hearing the sound of a grand piano. The next improvement to this piano over the previous CE200 is a USB flashdrive input. This feature allows you to load in piano songs for playback at any tempo along with a great way to store your own user recordings from the on-board 2-track recorder.

There are a total of 22 very high quality instrument sounds on this piano (including very realistic string symphonies, Church & Jazz B3 organs, choirs, guitar, etc), along with 100 very realistic drum patterns with tempo control (such as jazz, rock, waltz, big band, Latin, country, boogie, etc) which are not only a lot of fun to play along with, but help tremendously with piano students in better understanding rhythm and timing which are the most difficult things in music to learn in my opinion. The CE220 also allows you to layer any two sounds together or split the keyboard with any two sounds. And beyond that, the piano can be electronically divided into two identical 44-key pianos for 4-hand duet play utilizing two pedals for individual sustain for both keyboards. This is great for student/teacher, parent/child, or for any two people who want to play the piano at the same time.

Although the CE220 is very intuitive and easy to use with its nice LED interface display screen, it also has many effects & editing features to adjust sound, tone, and key response to individual tastes. There are 5 touch velocity-sensitivity levels for changing key response, different voicing features for customizing piano sound to become brighter or more mellow, reverb/echo function to add more realism to the piano tone such as being played in a large room versus a smaller room. There are also deeper editing features with micro-editing to bring out the nuances of the grand piano sounds in ways no other piano in this price range can do.

The previous CE200 was famous for having the Kawai AWA Grand Pro II keyboard action, which had longer, real wooden keys for an very realistic acoustic piano feel. This action had authentic key balance points, action movement, and contact placements that combined with proper hammer grading and bass key counter-weights. No other digital piano under $3000 currently has this special wood key action and I am happy to say that Kawai was able to keep it in the new CE220 and still offer the piano for less than $2000, which in my opinion, is amazing. The feel of the key action is really outstanding and the movement of the keys is quiet, sturdy, and durable, just like a real acoustic upright piano.The wooden keys seems to give the player more of an organic experience in tone and finger movement. The 3 built-in pedals also duplicate the feel and function of the 3 standard pedals on a real acoustic piano including progressive half-pedaling for detailed damper expression.

The CE220 also has a built-in USB output to computer or iPad for connectivity to powerful programs and apps for music education, notation, composing, and more. I am also impressed with the fact that this model has 1/4" stereo audio outputs & inputs to add an external speaker system if desired or to input other devices audio output such as a computer or iPad to go directly into the Kawai audio system. In that way you can plug in headphones and hear not only the Kawai piano in privacy, but also hear the computer or iPad sound coming through the headphones...a very cool & useful feature.

The new Kawai CE220 comes in a "premium satin black" finish only and includes a built-in sliding key cover and matching padded bench. This model is also a limited production model available only in the US and Canada. In my opinion, the CE220 easily outperforms all other digital cabinet pianos in its price range for what it delivers, as well as pianos that are higher priced such as the newer Yamaha Clavinova CLP430 and Roland HP302, both of which are over $2000 and closer to $2500. In my opinion the CE220 easily outperforms the popular Yamaha Arius YDP181 ($1799 internet price) as well as the newer Roland RP301 ($1699 internet price). Even the popular Kawai CN23 digital piano ($1799 internet price) will get stiff competition from this new CE220 for only $100 more. This new model does NOT have the ivory touch keytops or the "grand piano" action movement with let-off/escapement that a few other digital pianos have. But those models are normally priced over $2500 and in the final analysis, keytops on real grand pianos including Yamaha, Kawai, and many others do not have ivory feel keys either, they have the regular hard white plastic tops, and I don't hear professional players complaining about that:). 

As for a grand piano key movement with let-off/escapement mechanism versus an upright piano key movement without that, they are both great to have (as long as the specific key actions are good ones) and there are some very expensive acoustic upright pianos (Yamaha, Kawai, etc) which are excellent instruments but don't have a grand piano key movement with letoff/escapement mechanism. The Kawai CE220 has, in my opinion, a very realistic professional upright piano key movement, which for most people, is more than sufficient.

The bottom line on this model is...Kawai has really outdone themselves in the $1500-$2500 price range this year in 2012, and I believe the other brands will simply have to play "catch up" now, except for the Casio Celviano models which are very nice digital pianos for acoustic piano tone, key touch, and interactive music education in a lower price range (under $1500). I would highly recommend this new Kawai CE220 at $1899 internet price for anyone wanting a solid, reliable piano with excellent piano touch, response, and dynamics along with very convincing grand piano tone. I also like the very enjoyable and advanced digital technology features of this model in its solid, attractive black cabinet... and that's saying a lot. I think the tough part will be trying to get one of these pianos soon because once the word gets out, this model will likely be in short supply. Please contact me directly for current CE220 availability from Kawai.

If you want more piano info and LOWER PRICES than internet or store discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.