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

UPDATED REVIEW - April 25, 2013 - Recommended - The Kawai CE220 digital piano is a winner! - In the "under $2000 price range" for a furniture cabinet digital piano, the Kawai CE220 digital piano is very hard to beat with its wood key construction, large 192-note piano sound polyphony, useful digital features, and solid cabinet. It continues to be extremely popular for people who want a great bang for the buck in that lower price range and having a digital piano that does a very good job of reproducing the acoustic piano playing experience. Trying to find one to see and play in person seems to be difficult for most people in the US & Canada (they are not available in other countries) as I am told this model continues to sell out pretty fast.

The Kawai Piano company of Japan (Ka-WHY- phonetic pronunciation) 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 musical instruments for recreational players, students, and professionals throughout the world so it comes as no surprise to me that Kawai has come out with this new and very impressive digital piano model called the CE220 ($1899 internet price, below left pic). Please note that the CE220 is custom made piano model only available in the US & Canada and nowhere else in the world and will remain this way as far as I know. So to all my friends outside of North America, I am sorry to say you will not have this model in your country.

The Kawai CE220 furniture cabinet piano was officially introduced on January 19, 2012, but didn't start shipping in any quantities until late February/March and have been selling out all year as soon as they come in and they are still backordered at Kawai even today. I have spent a great deal of time playing this piano and was most impressed with what I experienced in this lower price range (under $2000). The first thing that I noticed right away was the realistic piano sound itself which is a huge step up in my opinion from anything Roland or Yamaha has in this same price range when it comes to reproducing the actual acoustic piano sound.

This upgraded technology includes an impressive 192-notes of piano sound polyphony (aka: computer memory) for a better and smoother sounding piano sound which is very impressive. Once the polyphony is near 200, it is usually more than enough even for experienced advanced players. Further more, Kawai also includes 88-key individual piano sampling which means each key or note on the piano was individually sampled from a real Kawai acoustic piano (left pic). Now that's a BIG deal and gives the CE220 an edge over the other brands under $000. This model has a stereo 40-watt built-in speaker system which is normally sufficient power for most homes but additional powered speakers can be connected or you can run it through your home audio/stereo system. Also, when you listen through good stereo headphones, the piano sound realism of dynamics, expression, and detail is incredibly realistic, especially for its low price, and it makes you think you are hearing the sound of an acoustic grand piano or listening to a CD recording of an acoustic piano. I've never heard another furniture cabinet piano under $2000 sound that good. Another very nice feature on the CE220 is a USB flashdrive input. This 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 MIDI recorder where you can record left and right hand separately and play back at the same time or play live along with the recorded part or parts.

There are a total of 22 high quality instrument sounds on this piano (much better than any other furniture cabinet piano I have played under $2000) including very realistic string symphonies, church & Jazz B3 organs, choirs, guitar, etc, along with 100 realistic sounding drum patterns 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 piano students to better understand rhythm and timing which are the most difficult things in music to learn in my opinion. This is a very useful feature and I use it all the time in my teaching studio. 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 quite 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-level velocity sensitivity controls for changing key response from very light to very heavy, different voicing features for customizing piano sound to become brighter or more mellow so you can adjust the piano tone depending on the type of music you are playing (classical, pop, jazz, etc), excellent studio reverbs/echo function to add more realism to the piano tone such as what it would sound like 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. You may or may not use those features but it's nice to know they are available and that you can grow into them.

The keyboard action is the heart and soul of any piano and that's the number one thing piano teachers and players look for when shopping for a piano. The CE220 is far advanced in this way utilizing the Kawai AWA Grand Pro II keyboard action, which has longer, real wooden acoustic piano keys for a very realistic acoustic upright piano feel. This action has 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 unique wood key action and the feel of the key action is really outstanding with the movement of the keys being exceptionally quiet, sturdy, and durable, just like a real acoustic upright piano. Most plastic key digital pianos do have some noise associated with the key movement (some more than others) but this special action is noticeably quiet which is a very good thing in my book. Also, the wooden keys give the player more of an organic experience in tone and key movement just like an acoustic piano. The 3 built-in pedals also duplicate the feel and function of the 3 standard pedals on a real acoustic piano including the half-pedaling feature for more detailed damper/sustain expression.

The CE220 has a built-in USB output to computer or iPad for connectivity to useful programs and apps for music education, notation, composing, and more ( which I encourage my students to use). 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 Kawai CE220 comes in a premium satin black (as Kawai calls it) which is attractive and includes a built-in sliding key cover and matching padded bench. Once again, this piano is a limited production model available only in the US and Canada. In my opinion, the CE220 outperforms all other digital cabinet pianos in its price range ($1899+) for what it delivers as compared to pianos that are even higher priced such as the Yamaha Clavinova CLP430 and Roland HP503, both of which are over $2000 and closer to $2500. In my opinion the CE220 easily outperforms the popular Yamaha Arius YDP181 ($1699 internet price) as well as the newer Roland RP301 ($1699 store price). The bottom line on this model is...I believe Kawai has outdone themselves in the under $2000 price range especially with being able to have wood acoustic piano keys in this price range which separates it from everything else. If you're looking at the other brands in the $1500 range or above, then I would encourage you to consider increasing your budget a bit to invest in the Kawai CE220 as I believe it would be a better longer term investment and worth the extra money. 

I would recommend the Kawai CE220 at $1899 internet price for anyone (even advanced players) wanting a solid, reliable piano with excellent piano touch movement, authentic acoustic piano wood keys, excellent detailed key touch response and dynamics, along with convincing acoustic grand piano tone. It's a great choice for any skill level and also good for more advanced players who can appreciate the 192-note of polyphony and wood keys giving a higher degree of sound and key realism when playing more complex or advanced music. I also like the advanced digital technology features of this model in its solid, attractive black cabinet. I think the tough part will be trying to get one of these pianos soon because they continue to be in short supply and will be for awhile. But sometimes good things are worth the wait...especially if you'll be wanting to keep it for a long time:)

Casio PX780

If you want to be in a much lower price range but still want a good piano playing experience with many useful features, there is a new digital piano by the Casio company called the PX780 ($999 internet discount price) available now in limited quantity that is quite impressive for its low price. I have played this new model and was very impressed with it for such a low price and recommend this piano to just about anyone seeking an enjoyable piano playing experience in a low price range with its surprisingly good acoustic piano sound (10 piano sounds to choose from from a total of 250 instrument sounds) and a realistic graduated weighted key action along with lots of useful built-in music technology in a compact furniture cabinet. Before you make any decision on any new digital piano I would recommend you consider this one as well. Go here to read more about it from my recent review: Casio PX780 review

*Take a look at the Kawai video for the CE220 here: Kawai CE220 video

Listen to audio sample demos of the CE220 here: CE220 audio demos (make sure you connect a good pair of headphones to your computer as this is a great way to listen to these songs as well as to the video...and this is true for any digital piano you listen to.

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.