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Well, that must have been a big sale. Over here in the Netherlands, the HD598 have always cost €175, until they dropped to €129 when the HD599 were introduced. The HD598 always cost €250 at Amazon.de, until it dropped to €229, and now €160 after the HD599 intro.

Maybe I'll get a black pair and sell my HD595 and HD598...

Back then, if you wanted the HD598 but in black, all you had to do was buy the HD558 (which are black, and cheaper too), open them up and remove the bit of foam behind the drivers. The 558s apparently had the same drivers as the 598s. So with that little mod, the only difference to the 598s was apparently the slightly different grill of the open casing. Which made such a little difference that the modded 558s apparently had almost the same frequency response as the 598s. Well, that's what the web tells me. Google "Sennheiser 558 mod".
I'm not sure if the same mod works with the 559/599...

I received the first parts from my ES8.

Unfortunately I cannot post pictures

Don't you have any or don't you know how?

If the latter, it's rather simple: http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2248307.html

First parts? Does it come in monthly consignments? Betcha wished you`d paid cash up front. . . .

Ok then. I hope this works....
I ordered the stand and the pedal unit seperately to go with my ES8.
The build was quite easy and took me about one hour. The quality was ok. Not perfekt, but I would say the standard plywood verneer in black.
After that I needed 2 hours to get rid of the paper, cardboard and plastic
And now I am waiting for the main unit...

The main problem was not the store. It was the shippment! Never, never, ever take GLS as dispatcher!

Well, I'm kinda p* off about Kawai
Got my ES8 delivered on Monday and got home today to drag it up to my apartment in the second floor. This thing is really heavy!
After unpacking everything and playing a couple of tunes, I noticed one key not functioning correctly. It's quite loud, does thumb/click noises (difficult to explain), and the key is loose. I can pull it up quite a bit. I cannot do this with the other keys. Doesn't Kawai have any final assembly check? Now I can spend time taking care of the warranty...

Can I upload any videos here?

You could, but it won't help your situation at all. Why not contact your local Kawai company?

As for whether Kawai has a final assembly check, they do, of course. But there is shipping that happens, and often it ships between several different companies. So who knows where in that is got messed up? It's a shame though. But Kawai honors their warranty.

I forget, did you order this online or through a dealer?

I'd rather have a company that honors their Quality Assurance. No sense to wait until the customer has the trouble. And this problem could have been noticed immediately in an end of line check.
This is the second brand new instrument from Kawai with quality issues. I am not very happy
Of course I have called my dealer. He will call Kawai and give me his feedback on Monday. I hope it turns out well. Don't want to have a brand new instrument serviced already.

I reckon Kawai have already decided it`s cheaper to fix faults than prevent them in the first place. Their service is reckoned to be be very good.

So are the new Rolands I believe . . . .wish you well, man.

The quality problems would have been a shrug from an old-time American manufacturer.
But for a Japanese company it seems uncharacteristic.

I'm with you, Belger. These problems should not escape the factory.

I could be wrong but seeing how parcels and goods are handled in transit these days, and the pressure the people are under delivering goods on a peanuts salary trying to stick to a schedule, many of the issues are likely caused post factory/QA and happen during transit. In the end we can only guess, unless James wishes to gives some inside info (I doubt it, since he wouldn't be allowed to say anyway) what proportion are QA versus transit issues. Just a gut feeling, my feeling is that more of them are of the latter type.

I was fine with my Casio luckily, but seeing how they took the thing out of the truck and handled it, I'll say no more.

If I bought a large console again, I'd rather pay a bit of extra and get the extra reassurance. In UK at least, there are enough stores if you check with them that handle their own deliveries, and guarantee with certain brands that you don't have to send it back or they will send out an engineer to fix the thing or give a replacement should there be an issue.

Next time I buy again, I wouldn't dream ordering a large console or a slab from a store like thomann for example or a product that size just to save a hundred bucks here or there in case it has to be returned, it is not worth the hassle IMO.

That something is broken out of the box can happen, in shipment.

The one thing that always irks me is a dealer telling me "I'm going to call Kawai, and then give you the feedback on what to do." Most of the time, the feedback will be that you need to send the instrument back for repair.

If it's a very big dealer, such as Thomann, I'd never accept something like that. Just send out a new instrument, and pick up the defective one when the new one is delivered. *THEN* arrange repairs with Kawai, and after you receive the instrument again (the dealer that is), just restock it after a check.

In my MP7, a key broke after about 10 months (and not a very often used one, even). The dealer picked up the instrument and the repair will probably be OK, but I'm still of the opinion that he could have offered me an MP7 on loan. He has two second-hand ones in the showroom.

It's not too big of a problem, because I still have the LX-17.

@Morodienne,
Please let us know more about final quality assurance in the Indonesian factory. Have you pay a visit to premises to inspect QA?
-

Some thoughts from another Kawai customer:
Kawai will have to look into their quality assurance and packaging quality. Even if it should be the case that damage would be done by the parcel services, better packaging would prevent a bad user experience being reported in public. Even though I doubt, that a single key malfunctioning would be the result of a drop of the parcel in transit.

Recently I have made the experience, that the Kawai warranty repair service in Austria has become very responsive. A pity that I needed it yet again.


@Belger1900,
Since your ES8 was damaged directly out of the box, I'd ask for a new exchange unit from your dealer. Sending it in for repair will take another week at minimum.

The only thing that I will accept is a new instrument. I don't want to hassle around with a service guy nor change my schedule to be home in case someone has to service the defect key. I hate expensive things that have to be service brand new out of the box.
I will still wait and see what my dealer proposes.

In any case here in Germany you can just send it back within 14 days without any given reason and receive a refund. Just in case...

Called my dealer. He offered to pick up the instrument and send me another one. He wasn´t very precise what kind of instrument he would send me. He said they still have one they could drop in my box and send it back. I hope it will be a new one. But I still cannot understand why he can´t just send me a new instrument and have the old one picked up

One more question perhaps for people that have some xperience with Kawai instruments:
One key is loose. The key seems to be detached from the mechanics and I can lift it up. All other keys are locked and cannot be moved upwards. Due to this the key hits the hammer below and causes loud "Click" noises on return. Anybody have an idea what the problem is?
Seems that even Kawai did not have any idea for a remote maintenance.

I would not bother with technical details. You paid for flawless product, and your dealer has to grant for it, besides the warranty given by Kawai.

In your place I would not accept an unspecified exchange. The dealer always has the possibility to give you a new exchange unit, if he wants to. Otherwise I would go for a full refund and buy a new one elsewhere. Imagine, the replacement unit is not what you would expect, then you can start from the beginning again. (FYI, I am on my 4. MP7.)

Besides do not forget to note the serial number of your defective device, and document the defect with a video and photos.

Sounds like the same problem as the one for which my MP7 is now away for repair.

On Yamaha actions this is just an improperly seated/installed key mechanism and is easy to fix, but why should you need to do so on a brand new machine? I agree with the others, get a completely new replacement, or return for a full refund and buy elsewhere.

I guess it's a combination of the following:

- Bad quality control from the factory
- Packaging not protective enough
- Delivery guys treating music instruments delivery equally to potato deliveries.

But the question is what's the actual percentage of those components. I remember Kawai improved their packages against mistreatment but that unfortunately would mean their QC sucks.