Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards What speakers are you using with the Kawai MP11 (or any DP)?

Wondering what speakers those of you who have the Kawai MP11/MP7 (or any digital piano really) are paring with your MP11/MP7?

JBL LSR308...?
Yamaha HS8...?

Thanks!

80 views and no one cares to share what speakers they use with their digital pianos...? lol

My speakers aren't great, and I play with headphones 99% of the time. But if it helps, they're M-Audio BX5a.

I am happy to share, though they are not 'powered monitors' like the ones that were mentioned in your original post.

I have two different setups.

Piano room setup: this is where I spend most of the time playing piano. I am using a pair of B&W CDM 1SE Monitors (http://www.audioreview.com/cat/speakers/bookshelf-speakers/b-and-w/cdm-1se/prd_119120_4290crx.aspx). They are powered by Onkyo 2-channel receiver.

Home Theater room setup: I take the DP to the home theater room occasionally - typically on weekend to listen to the Piano sound from the HTPC connected to the speakers in the home theater room. The speakers are a pair of GoldenEar Triton Ones (https://www.goldenear.com/products/triton-series), powered by a pair of monoblock amplifiers. The sound is quite amazing!

Osho

Triton Ones?! You aren't messing around! lol

That is awesome!

You get a chance to hear their new speaker? It is beyond gorgeous and so is the sound.

I have two Bose L1 Compacts.

I use LSR305s and they do very well, I think. But I'm not someone who is very picky.

I have a pair of old Yamaha HS80m in my studio and a pair of Yamaha HS5 in my room.

That would be my choice. At the moment, I have a couple o' practice amps. A Behringer 15W bass (I have a bass guitar that I've not got round to learning yet) and a Marshall. They'd be handy for gigs if I did any . . . .it's fun learning to live with the un-hi fi aspects of these.
And if the speaker cone gets damaged, you can fix it with a Kelloggs packet and UHU . . . .

Yes, the bass notes are a thing of beauty (via either Pianoteq 6 or Garritan CFX) on the Triton ones!

No, not yet - I am almost afraid to hear their new speaker - it usually leads to the 'upgrade itch'

Osho

I highly recommend a pair of Mackie MR8 mk3's specifically for MP11.

I had a chance to compare Mackie MR8 mk3, Yamaha HS8 and LSR308 head-to-head in a studio environment using the uncompressed records made on MP11. I can tell you that Mackie's performance was absolutely stunning. Great bass and decent details. For MP11 I would not consider anything else (for the reasonable price).

I used to have a pair of Mackie cr4's. Now replaced with JBL 305's and use the Mackie's on the PC. Pretty happy with both.

@Osho That's one impressive setup! Seeing the specs on the Tritons is impressive in itself. More than covers the audible spectrum.
I have to ask - does that in conjunction with good VSTs (like the ones you named) feel like you're playing an actual acoustic? Or that you're listening to an acoustic (when listening)? Or it's still not there yet?

And on-topic - the LSR305 here as well. Very pleased with them for their size and price. I wonder how better ones would sound, but the only way to test would be buying them, so I'm not going to, too soon. I also wonder how they compare with the internal speakers of the CA67 for playing back a vst.

Yamaha HS-7 here. They are OK. However they do not sound as good as I expected as they are close to the wall. I had to do some aggressive equalization on the bass range because of that. I underestimated how much being close to the wall would affect the sound. In hindsight I would possibly pick a 5in monitor such as LS305 and if bass was not sactisfactory (probably it would for me), pick a subwoofer in the future.

I'm using a Roland CM-220 2.1 setup. It works very well, although there's a little floor hiss. Unfortunately Roland discontinued them.

Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of experience playing on acoustic pianos. I have only played at the piano lessons (my teacher has an acoustic grand) and in piano stores. So, my ears haven't been calibrated enough with the real acoustic sound yet to answer this question. But, this setup definitely provides the feeling of real acoustic piano sound filling an entire room nicely with a good dynamic range - especially on lower notes which are f, ff or fff.

Osho

What connector(s) and connection(s) do you use from the digital piano to your Onkyo stereo receiver?

Not sure which of the 2 setups you are referring to, but here are the details of both:

For the Piano room, I go from DP (USB Midi) -> Laptop (On-board Realtek sound audio) -> Headphone jack -> Line in input of Onkyo stereo receiver -> B&W CDM 1SE speakers

For the Home Theater room, it is DP (USB Midi) -> HTPC (Lynx L22 PCI sound card) -> Line Out -> Morrison ELAD pre-amps -> 2 BEL 1001 Monoblock amplifiers -> Triton One speakers.

Osho

If you have the resources, I think the better quality the speakers, the better the piano playing experience. If you are an "audiophile", or appreciate high-fidelity music, consider a significant investment into your digital piano's sound reproduction.

By resources I don't just mean cost, but also the right space. To take advantage of even $200 studio monitors coupled to digital pianos, you need a decent arena. That means setting up a roughly equilateral triangle between each speaker and your head, speakers at close to ear level, and avoiding terrible room placement like your back in a corner. There are many easy-to-find websites for good speaker and room setup. Bigger rooms are better, with less than 100 sq. ft, for example, to be avoided. If you have a good room and placement in it, you may even want to consider room treatment (again, many sites will help). Though this will cost good money to do this right (roughly $1000 and up), even spending $500 or less for just bass traps will help a very small room.

Personally I found that spending upwards of a thousand dollars on quality studio monitors to have revolutionized my experience at my digital piano. To have very clear bass and mids, well balanced under a load of frequencies, is spectacular for playing piano. Now this amount of money is probably a big investment for many people, as it is for me. But if you are not just playing an hour a week and know you will play for many years, this can be very worth it (as it is to me). I ended up going with overkill monitors for my current space (found good deal of $3000) with the aim of using them for many years both listening to and playing music and planning on upgrading my room setup as well.

I am totally satisfied with my Neumann KH 310s. About a half year in, and still maybe every other play session I'll find myself totally uplifted and mesmerized by the music that I didn't think even a year ago I could ever play in my own living room. I also tried the smaller Neumann KH120s extensively (can get for roughly $1000) and would be very happy with those, for example. Just a bit less fidelity and weaker bass. If you have the means and consider this at least a serious hobby, I would recommend speakers of that caliber or higher. Otherwise, even the entry-level studio monitors like JBL 308s or Yamaha HS7 are great value and are huge upgrades over onboard piano speakers.

Even JBL LSR 305's do their jobs great for their ridiculous price.
I'm very satisfied.