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James,the user's manual doesn't mention it. Would have to use some aftermarket vinyl cover, which is not very furniturelike in a living room. Moreover, would have to remove the music rack/rest in order to throw the cover over it. Other suggestions will be welcome.

Montano, my apologies, the ES7 does not include a dust cover.

I thought that a dust cover may have been included with models sold in Japan (I had seen pictures of an ES7 covered up with a Kawai branded cover), however this is not the case either.

The dust cover is available as an optional accessory in Japan, however.

Kind regards,
James
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I have a dust cover which my girlfriend made : it's elastic , so it's bends nicely over the piano and you can leave the music rest where it is. Worked for the MP; got another one for a 61 keyboard, for the TV set and other stuff that gathers dust. She's quite handy - perhaps look for a similar elastic cover , or a similar girlfriend who can make you one ;-)

I just purchased a Es7 from Taylor Music in West Chester Pa. this week end. Ordered it last week and took a week to get here from California. First impressions , this is a quality piano , the grand piano sound is full,rich and clear. The action is quick and responsive and easy to do lead riffs on.The keys have a great feel and make it easy to play precisely without fatiguing your fingers. The piano sound is a little bright for me but it has an eq section to take some of the highs out and boost the bass section.Personnaly I think it would be a good piano for going out and playing solo,and because of the brightness also cut through in a band setting.I really like this piano,Mike.

Just curious what you paid for the ES7?

Got my ES7 with stand and pedal unit. I assume first batch. Not much time to spend with it yet but my first thoughts:

Pro:
1) very nice cabinet. Especially with stand and pedals. Well designed and made. Edit : on second thought - yes - very nice indeed ;-)
2) nice basic sounds , effects have indeed improved. The basic sound set Kawai has chosen is exactly what I need. Just miss my Jazz Grand ;-(
3) nice EP2 sound. Perhaps it's the same as on my MP6, but it simply sounds much better.
4) Repetition very much improved over the RH keybed ; the response is very fast !
5) Speakers with more than enough power, although they look rather small. Sound quite good.

Cons:
1) Key travel - this is less compared to my RH on the MP6. I really don't like it that it bottoms earlier. I don't understand how adding a third sensor has made is necessary to limit the key travel. Perhaps its not even that much of a difference, but it certainly feels that way to me.
2) General keybed build quality; there is more spacing between the keys and they are also unequaly spaced among different key ranges. My MP6 had the most tight keybed in that respect; it looked absolutely perfect. Not a big deal, just what I noticed.
3) Key noise; the RHII on the ES7 bottoms out harder, making more thumb noise. This was a big pro on the MP6 - the most quiet keybed I knew so far. Now the advantage over Roland is gone in that respect. I think it's the combination of the keybed and the casing of the ES7 , that simply makes more noise. Would be interesting to know if the other Kawais with RHII make the same sound. No deal breaker, just a detail.
4) Speakers are powerful , but with a some low-mid boost. Even with EQ on mid-cut or user adjusted EQ there is some emphasize on the mid-low frequencies. Hard to expect perfect sound from BI speakers. Perhaps the fact that they are oval is a reason for some unwanted frequency intermodulations / resonances. In general they are not bad.

In short;
the speed of the keybed is impressive and light, but somehow I can't connect with the keys as much as before, because of the (perceived?) shorter key travel. The thumb noise and spacing is more of a cosmetic / audible annoyance that I can live with. Could be that one unit is a bit noisier (like mine) than others.

Have to play with the ES7 a bit more; hope the keybed grows on me. It's a very nice instrument in general and it also looks good !!

Interesting, thanks for posting your initial thoughts.

I'm not aware of any structural or material changes to the RHII action other than the additional sensor. Nor should the key dip or action noise be any different. However I will try to check these points tomorrow.

How does the keyboard compare with the ES7 prototype you played a few weeks ago?

Cheers,
James
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If there was a change in key travel, I don't see any reason to assume that it's because of adding the third sensor, it could be a decision made for other reasons.

Regarding the Kawai action and the roland action ,I have the gx and it bottoms out hard but the Kawai es7 is deffinetly softer at the bottom than the roland.The action compared to my roland is easier to play and faster.

Maybe it's my unit. It doesn't bother me too much. Just noisier than what I was used to. And a perceived shorter key travel, whether that is technically true or not. On the MP6 the standard touch curve was just fine for the RH. Now I have to fiddle around with custom curves to get the same level of response back, whenever I find the time. For now I just set it to "heavy" , which works a bit better to me than 'normal'.

Overall nice instrument. I'll write a full review when I have more time and know the ES a bit better.

In short I found the MP6 right on spot for my hands from the first moment and only gradually found out that the keybed was a bit slow for fast repetitions. Other than that I felt at home right away with the touch . With the ES7 I have to work more to get to like the keybed overall, it's definitely faster and perhaps better and also lighter and much easier to play, but somehow I have problems to "connect" with the touch. Maybe my hands and mind are made for a keybed that is more on the heavy side, but nevertheless I had the feeling that I had more delicate dynamic control over the RH. The verb I put on that for now is deeper key travel => bit more control over dynamic range. Trade in in speed and easiness for more delicate dynamic control.

It's personal and I may change my opinion 180 degrees when I have have spend more time on the ES. It's first impressions after all ;-)

You are right, as the MP6 only has a two-sensor action, not three.

I'm still wondering if the RH II has some structural changes from the RH other than the addition of the 3rd sensor ?! It feels so much different. I described it as less key travel, but perhaps my mind is tricking me, although I find that hard to believe. Any info on that will be welcome, so I know if I'm just imagining things or not...

j

Update: I think I can get used to the RH II, it's like switching cars or motor cycles. They can both be good, but you have to adjust your 'driving style' a bit. Still have a nasty problem with HF noise on the speakers that will be fixed by Kawai (great service!) and a question here that hopefully other ES7 users can answer.

I bought the ES for the RH II keybed, the speakers and...the audio input. The latter because I intended to use software instruments with the ES as well, playing over the internal speakers. Fr instance layering pianoteq over the Kawai grand as I have done before. All coming from the same cabinet speakers I assumed it would blend naturally and nicely with the instrument, but...

The audio input on my unit sounds horrible . The sound is flat, totally lacks bass and transparency, sound like band filtered and and a bit distorted at times. I wonder if it is my unit In particular, or a weakness of the ES in general. I hope the first and also that it is fixable like the HF noise problem. I want to keep the ES but also hope that I can use it as I intended.

By the way I used several different devices as input, changed the wiring, used decouples etc. didn't make a difference. Same file played as audio from a USB stick sounds fine over the ES.

What exactly is "HF" above... does this mean "High Frequency?"

I can't be for certain as of yet, although I think I am hearing a fuzzy sound on my new CA95 (mostly in the mid-range notes, just above middle C), and, haven't been able to determine what it is I am perceiving.

Perhaps it could just be the metallic sounds of the piano strings that have a buzzing-like quality to them, however, I am not so sure on how to clean up the sound to make things clear and not as fuzzy.

Hope that this isn't speaker distortion similar to what is being described above, and, a general question:

Has anyone else heard a fuzzy, or, not so clear sound, on their CA63 / CA93, or, CA65 / CA95?

I also had some "fuzzy" / not clear sound on my CA93
I have now another DP (NU1) and the sound is crystal clear compared to my former CA93.
I also had some trouble with the sound board which made some "vibration parasite sound" for some note only.
At the end it started to disturb me, but I thought that the new sound engine of the CA95 would have solved the trouble.
Cheers

The HF noise is not depending on something you play. It is a distortion in the speaker output (when not playing) and increases when you increase the volume slider till midways and decreases till full volume setting. In other wordts most audible when the volume slider is halfways. I is an aknoledged problem on some units and can easily be fixed. Probably some shielding issue. Problem will be solved (in the end).

Second thing is that the audio input has a very flat, not transparent and somewhat stressed sound, lacking bass and brilliance. The lack of full range sound seems to be due to the fact that the internal sounds pass an EQ before being send to the speakers, whilst the audio-input does not pass this correction EQ. That would explain the bad sound quality when hearing audio from the input on the speakers. And an EQ correction before the input might solve that.

It does not however explain why the input sound still sounds bad on headphones. The low/mid/high balance is better, but the non-transparent , smaller and stressfull sound character is still there. When doing AB between the same recording through the audio in and from USB stick you can easily hear the difference (on headphone).

I traveled > 300km to see if my unit needed to be exchanged , but found out the the other ES had the same HF noise, although much less and that the audio input quality had the same issues as my unit. Went back with my original ES; waste of time and gasoline.

The ES7 is absolutely a great instrument, that seems to have some audio issues. One of them is easily solvable , but for the underperforming audio input quality I fear. Hope there will be a solution too, because my intention was to actually use it (for SW instruments) and not regard it as a gift that you'll probably never use. I wonder how other ES users are evaluating the audio input quality ? Could still be exemplary...

If you don't care about the audio input at all , the ES7 is a no brainer. Very good piano board over all, nice and sturdy design.

JFP, according to one of the keyboard engineers in R&D, the key travel of the RH and RHII actions are the same. He suggested that the reason you perceive them to feel different is because your MP6 was a couple of years old, and the key stop cushion had likely compressed a little over time, giving the impression of greater key dip.

Regarding the audio input sound, I've raised this query with the ES7 team and they're looking into it.

Kind regards,
James
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This is possibly the 'Damper Noise' sound heard when pressing the damper pedal, as discussed in the following thread:

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1961258



First, try adjusting the 'Damper Noise' virtual technician parameter (e.g. to 'Off'), then try adjusting the various other parameters related to resonances and noises.



It's possible, however I believe JFP's ES7 issue is not related.

Kind regards,
James
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[Edited]

According to the ES7 chaps in R&D, there is a digital equalizer between the tone generator and speaker amplifier which is used to optimise the internal sound system.

However, the ES7's Line In audio is analogue - it bypasses the digital equalizer and connects directly to the Line Out/Headphone output. For this reason the signal cannot be adjusted by the instrument's software.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
James
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