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Just my opinion but I was not a big fan of the 515's action. A little too heavy for what I was used to. Also the sound was not my favorite either. Other players would think the action and sound were perfect. I found the Kawai es920 to have an easier action and definitely a better sound, in my opinion. Try them both out. You may think different.

I tried both at the store and liked both.
As beginner, the keyboard of es920 was better for me (my opinion).
I played it for 6 months now, no problems so far and I really like the sound.

Have you tried formatting a thumb drive on the piano? The instructions for my ca-79 say to do that. I have a thumb drive formatted on my piano that I used to update to a beta firmware release. The other day I discovered that if I put that thumb drive into my Canon printer to scan a document, it quietly fails to write to that drive. I popped in the same brand thumb drive formatted on a computer and then the Canon printer wrote to it no problem. So, it seems the piano formatting is a bit touchy.

With regards to the discussion above about the action on the ES920 versus other keyboards such as the Yamaha P-515, I have a theory.

First, I've noticed in the comments of YouTube comparisons of various keyboards that half the people will say one piano has a lighter action, but the other half will say it's heavier and that the other one is lighter.

Second, I noticed a lot of beginning players are happy with just about any keyboard action out there.

It took me one finger and 5 Seconds to eliminate the P-515 from my shopping list.

My theory is that beginning players likely have learned to play music mainly or only on the white keys. I think just about every keyboard is playable at the front of the white keys. The issue comes when you have a thumb and/or pinky on Black Keys. Then your middle fingers are up close to the fall board, even as close as half an inch. Many digital pianos and keyboards are brutally difficult to play there, and the downward key travel is only a fraction of what it is at the front of the white key.

Next time you're in a piano store, have a poke at a grand piano. I'm sure you'll find that the weight is nearly the same at the front and the back of the key. That's what I look for.

You made a very good point there. It is true that it's difficult there and it asks more concentration. But one can get used to it. In Beethoven moonlight, for example, you have this with right hand and you have to get used to it. It is not impossible to play. May be with a piece with a lot of hand movements and faster, it could be hard to play.

But you are right, longer keys is really a must.

Nice to know they released this update to the public.

I was the one who found the indefinite sustain pedal bug when switching from dual layered sounds (I opened a thread here a while back) and let Kawai rep know.
Kawai did acknowledge and sent me a beta fix not available yet to the public which seemed to solve the issue - my version still shows v1.101 92FB (not v1.11). I will update to the official version soon for more stability. All in all, Kawai support has been great so far.

My only wish for Kawai right now is to release more sounds, as other companies often do in updates. The amount of sounds for the $ in the ES920 is very disappointing and so is the quality of the non-piano sounds.

I wish the board were self sufficient, as there aren't any Brass/Synth Lead/ FM synth type sound presets etc. meaning I'd need a 2nd aux board which complicates the setup immensely.
I am not thrilled with the organs and the existing String/synth patches. The EPs are passable for band work. The ES920 has the potential to be a great all around gigging board if it had the amount and quality of sounds of say a Yamaha CP88 or Nord Stage . In fact, its action, speakers, and user interface given the weight would make it superior to the former examples had it boasted the same sound set.

Since the Kawai sounds are in ROM, there will be (and can be) no such updates. You should have looked into that before buying, if that was important to you. It is by no means a flaw in the instrument.

Other than the Nord, there are no other digital pianos that can do that, so I'm not sure what you mean by "other companies."

The Korg SV1 had a secret inaccessible bass sample and muted clavi that they unlocked in an update, but those sounds had been there to begin with, and I was a little irritated that they had not had them available to start with.

If you want more sounds, you'll need an external module, an iPad, or a workstation or synth rather than a digital piano. For those who play piano, the Kawai ES920 is entirely self-sufficient.

yes, I play piano and I need the hammer action board but I'd also like a better sound palette without getting a workstation since I won't use 90% of its features.
The thing with Kawai sounds being in ROM was not mentioned in the description of the product of the retailer nor by any YouTube reviewer I've watched demoing the product and explaining its functions before I bought it so this is hardly a good point - Despite my extensive research this is not a wildly mentioned notion and I did not stumble upon it. Don't get me wrong, I am extremely satisfied with the instrument and can do with the on board features.

Yamaha in their CP-88/73 (and YC-88/73 etc.) is an example of a company who offers new sounds in user updates. The CP-88 is the equivalent competitor of the Nord Stage line in the Digital Stage Piano category. Roland has a site called "Axial" in which most of their products can be loaded with sounds, granted not the FP series but 88 hammer action of Junos/Fa-08s which are in a similar or lower price category of the ES920. There isn't objectively any reason for companies not to include a bit more sounds or future sound updates in the digital pianos other than marketing and fear of cannibalizing sales of other products. If you check the specs of the Roland FP series for example you'll see so much more sounds for the $ . Just stock sounds... not even need to add them in a later update.

Fact of the matter is, I bought the ES920 for its great sounding pianos, Speakers (Speakers are a huge plus for rehearsals, and as stage monitors, or smaller venues without an existing pro grade PA) user interface, nice action and decent weight! Granted I can't have it all, but can I not? obviously, with a Kronos 88/73 one would literally not need anything else. The Kronos doesn't come with speakers unfortunately for me it's a big minus and is also way too heavy for me to carry alone and fit in a small car...

Those "home" digital pianos with speakers are not designed for gigging I guess which is why on average they have so few sounds, but as a paid gigging musician built in speakers have only been an asset fo me..

RickM ---Thanks for the suggestion about formatting the thumb drive on the piano. Not quite sure how to do that/which steps to achieve this but I will look into it unless someone has an easy step by step way to do it. As you can tell, I'm not exactly a genius with computers/software.

Page 71 of the manual.

Dexibell also has user installable sounds and supports SoundFont files too.

RickM ------Thank you!

Please ensure that the .SYS files are copied in the root (i.e. the "topmost") folder of the USB memory device, and not in a subfolder. Depending on the computer OS and software that you used to unzip the update file, it's possible that the files were unzipped into a separate folder. If this folder was copied onto the USB memory device, the ES920 will not be able to find the update files.

If you're in any doubt, please post a screenshot showing the contents of the USB memory device on your computer.

As others have noted, formatting the USB memory device inside the piano itself can also improve read/write compatibility, especially if the USB memory device was originally formatted using an unsupported filesystem such as exFAT instead of FAT/FAT32.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
James
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I posted a link to this update (when it was released earlier in the month) in your bug report thread:

http://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/3109444/re-kawai-es920-bug-report.html#Post3109444

Thank you for bringing the damper pedal issue to our attention.

Kind regards,
James
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> Next time you're in a piano store, have a poke at a grand piano. I'm sure you'll find that the weight is nearly the same at the front and the back of the key. That's what I look for.

Unfortunately if you want to buy a grand-like slab DP, your only choice these days is the MP11SE, hardly "portable" at 35 kg. With all others you have to bear with some near-the-fallboard hardness. The P515 is indeed stiffer to push initially, but once the "crust" breaks it turns (too?) light. Kawai and Roland are the other way around, they start out soft, then turn heavier lower down. I don't think the P515 is heavier overall, though I don't like its feel.

Finally received my ES520.

....And just realized I need a USB Type B cable to USB Type C.

Does this cable work if I wanted the "Host to PC" functionality?

I've cooled down. I realized, yes, you need a Type B to Type C for Macbooks.

Sorry for post so many replies.

What I can confirm after some tests:

1. With the latest Windows 10 update, I'm able to communicate with Kawai ES520 by sending down MIDI signals to the speakers on the Kawai ES520.
2. I need to pair the PC with Kawai ES520 first, before being able to receive Bluetooth MIDI signals from Kawai ES520.
3. You require MIDIBerry and LoopMIDI for Windows 10 PCs. MIDIBerry is a free download from the Microsoft Store. LoopMIDI is an application driver written by Tobias Erichsen, so you need to install the driver here. There is no other way for you to be able to receive and send MIDI signals to and from Kawai ES520 without these two applications. (MIDIBerry is for receiving MIDI signals, LoopMIDI is for piping the MIDI signals through a loopback from the Input virtual port to the Output virtual port.)
4. MIDIBerry and LoopMIDI both needs to be launched first before you do anything related to MIDI/music software/composing anything. I speculated that it's because Windows require the ports to be registered first, before we can start "listening" to those ports.
5. On LoopMIDI, you need just 1 port open. Name this to Kawai ES520 or whatever name you have. It doesn't matter. This port is for all other music composition software to listen to.
6. On MIDIBerry, you re-route the "BLUETOOTH MIDI IN" to the LoopMIDI port.



This sort of setup works now for me, and I'm finally able to compose Amiga trackers now.

Cheers James!
Sorry I don't check the forums very often so I might miss a message or two

Ok, after 2 days of using ES520, I have a manufacturing defect.

One of the 6 rubber feet at the bottom fell off. I thought, what just happened, and did a bit of inspection. It turns out the fallen rubber foot used an incorrect screw. The screw has a much wider thread, and it's shorter than the other screws. There's a hole in the ES520 on the bottom where the plastic screw threads were torn apart, causing the hole to be much larger than the rest of the screw holes in other rubber feet, so I can't put the loose foot back in.

When you flip the piano upside down, and the keys are facing you, the loose foot is the bottom center one. 2 feet on the left, 2 feet on the right, and the foot in the top center are perfectly fine.






While inspecting the feet, I heard some washers clanging inside. I don't suppose it would affect the keys, the key actions, and other things.

@KawaiJames, if you saw this, I would like to report this, so that other buyers won't have loose/torn screw holes.