Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Kawai K8 or small grand?

I'm with mikeheel on tone: rich and warm with strong bass...

I am certainly no expert, but after playing a few instruments I think the wider tail design does allow the smaller grands to have a "bigger" sound...i very much like the Boston, and I've played others in similar size categories without the wide tail design and felt the sound coming from that wider tail (which allows longer strings and I guess more soundboard, too) made a difference. just my opinion, though, and we're not finished auditioning yet. this is a tough decision!

on size, we aren't planning to live in this current dwelling place permanently (or even another year if I can help it), so i don't want to buy small now and regret it for the years to come.... I don't imagine we'd ever seek/need a grand bigger than 6' anyway, so the 5'4" to 5'10" seems to be the sweet spot for our purposes right now...

Thanks all!

I hear you Sushifor5. I am glad I went with the upright for now because it will give me time to go all out on the Grand when the time comes. I probably would have sold myself short on a Grand at this time in my knowledge.

After finding this forum and getting all this information.......I feel better about decisions I would have otherwise missed altogether. I almost bought a Yamaha U3 and almost overlooked the Yamaha YUS5 & Kawai K8.
Thanks to all on here for helping out.

String length is one of the most important parts of making a grand piano sound great. Other things of course help, but the longer they are the more lush and resonant the sound is and the bass is deeper.

Tried the K8, the RX-2, and the RX-3 at my Kawai dealer yesterday, and I was disappointed with the K8. It felt a bit heavy and non-responsive in its touch, and I actually preferred some other (cheaper) vertical pianos of Kawai.

The RX-2 and RX-3 are in a different league, though, and they imposed much less of a limitation technically than my Kawai digital does. Truly amazing! Suffices it to say that I am hooked now. Today it is off to the Yamaha dealer!

You've gotten great advice so far but, Choose for sound, feel, and quality construction above all. Most of us had to draw the line for size and budget (if money and room were no object, I'd have a Bosie Imperial or a Yamaha CFX sitting in my livingroom). From my own and my friends' experience, if the piano will be played by several family members, especially children, get something built like a tank.

Also, no matter how consistent the build quality is on a piano, it's a very complicated "musical machine" with hundreds of parts, so you want to buy one that has been carefully prepped by the dealer. If the salesman or dealer tell you otherwise, go somewhere else. After shopping around, you should be able to hear and feel the difference between a piano that's been prepped and one that's just been unboxed and put on the floor.

As was said before, take your time, shop around, and have fun. Keep us posted on your choice.

Good Luck!

Whatever you buy, make sure to buy from a dealer who will stand behind the product. As j&j said, a piano is a pretty complicated machine, and you may have to deal with small things while a new piano settles down. I put in a fair amount of research and legwork prior to buying a piano for my daughter (a Ritmuller GH170R). I really liked the sound when I was going around comparing the different pianos. Now six months later, I still love the sound of the piano, but I have no idea how it compares to other pianos any more. I am just used to that sound now. What I am really glad about is that I got it from the dealer that I did. The piano had required some tweaking beyond the usual tuning, and I have received nothing but stellar support from the dealer that I got it from.

When I was shopping for my first piano, I was under a very tight budget. I was teaching off of a digital piano at a music store, and my upright at home was someone's cheap cast-off if we could move it. One of the dealers I went to tried to convince me that an upright was just as good as a grand. While it was nice and within my price range, I was not convinced. I went to another dealer and played a Sammick grand and fell in love with it. And it was within my price range. I never regretted getting the Sammick and was able to trade it in a few years later with the same dealer for only $1500 less than what I paid for it as downpayment for my current Petrof concert grand. I know that if I had bought an upright I would have regretted it immediately.

Go for the grand!

The Kawai dealer I went to gave me good after-sales support some 8 years ago: when our digital piano had problems (three times), they fixed it without any claims. So that is why I started my shopping there for an acoustic. Reading the comments here, I come to the conclusion that the K8 was probably not prepped. It felt completely different from the Grands and other cheaper verticals. I will take a look at another Kawai dealer to cross-check this.

So, how was the Yamaha dealer? The first piano I tried was a YUS5. As it was in a special sound-proof room, it is probably played on a regular basis. It felt fine, though I prefer the touch and sound of the Kawai Grands. It definitely was better than the Kawai K8. The Yamaha Grants in the showroom were a different story, though, all of them out of tune. Even the C6x they had on display was horrible. What do these people think? Then I noticed a Hygrometer on the wall and a quick peek revealed a humidity of 30%. Suffices it to say that I won't buy my acoustic there...

What will it be, a good upright or a Grand? Not yet ruling out an upright completely, I am positively inclined towards a Grand. Our living room has 6 foot available (but not much more), so that suggests an RX-2 or RX-3 (or their equivalents of different brands). These Grands are above the USD 10,000 budget I initially had in mind, so some negotiation in combination with an modest increase in budget may be necessary. Alternatively, I may have to go for a second-hand.

Some background of the players in my household. I have played piano for some 40 years, of which 8 years lessons at a young age, followed by decades of on-and-off practice. My 16-yo son also plays regularly, though he is too busy for lessons, and my 10-yo daughter continues to amaze me with her musical talent. I have never been able to play a piece after having it heard once, but she is just doing that (within her technical ability). So, lots of fun in my family with our digital piano, but I feel we are ready for something better. I will not throw out the digital, because of its volume control and its harpsichord and church organ sounds.

I will continue to post my experiences of my search on this forum. I gave myself 1 year, but hopefully I hit upon something earlier.