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So I called Kawai this morning and the guy in charge of my case answered on the first ring. He’s actually super pleasant and reasonable and set me up with a different authorized repair shop that’s further away but has all positive reviews. I am so much happier. It’s good to actually talk to someone in person. Some inflections are lost in text and messages can get crossed. He doesn’t come across as shady at all. In my line of work it’s hard to find time to call someone, but boy does it expedite things if the human on the other end of the line is decent. Conversely, if I had communicated with CAE through email, I may have never known they were nuts until I dropped my board off there in person. Speaking with the Kawai rep in person has renewed my faith in the company. I’d actually recommend anyone doing the same if they have issues with their Kawai product.

@Johnny.English Good to hear. I'm curious to find out what the issue turns out being. Yea, with so little use of the jack it doesn't sound likely that it already failed. That was good thinking on checking reviews of the repair shops. Sounds like you saved yourself a big headache.

Well, both repair shops said that the cause is likely the jack... Kawai is sending them the whole circuit board that the jack is connected to. I doubt it's the jack because every pedal I've placed in there works except the Kawai pedal. Talking to Kawai this morning and they said that the triple pedal doesn't connect to that board so it gives me some faith that the triple pedal is a viable option as well. I am going to take it in for the warranty repair though. I spoke with a tech there and he was a normal, friendly human and things seemed encouraging. Too bad they won't take my keyboard until the new part arrives from Kawai. I had time to deliver it today, but it may be a while before I get the time to do it again. Even though it was 3 hours since I talked with Kawai, the tech said they still hadn't contacted them to fill them in. I'm not sure if that's just a So Cal casual approach to life, or if that's Kawai's process.

Hello. I just received an ES920 to audition.

Does anyone have any experience and/or thoughts of repeated low notes dropping out? As in the first forte strike is clearly the forte sample hitting, but quick repeats don't reproduce this initial tone, and some almost completely drop out. Is this related to the complaints about it mimicking something on an acoustic piano? Most importantly, has anyone worked around this?

I am comparing this 920 to my current ES8 and a Yamaha P525 and neither do this to me. I tried setting it on a lighter touch and it didn't help.

hello Anna , the ES920 and ES8 have the same action . The ES920 has got more velocity curve settings than the ES8 . Use light 3 setting , and you won’t miss a note and be able to play very fast repeated notes . It beats both my VPC1 and MP11 for this specific area of piano playing. With heavier curves you take the risk of issuing very low velocities which the ES920 is capable of sending , but that could happen easily in fast repeated notes with alternate fingerings .

I'm getting back to playing a little drums, and I wanted to pass MIDI from my Roland kit thru the ES520 to my pc, but it looks like the ES520 doesn't have MIDI thru, which is a bummer. MIDI thru used to be common to any device with MIDI in/out. But I guess a few cents were saved on not including it in the firmware.

To be fair here, the TD-17 drum module only has MIDI out, which is even skimpier than the ES520.

Products these days...

I guess I'll have to pony up for a MIDI merger since the ES520's MIDI is so limited to the bare minimum. But I suppose a MIDI Y cable should work just as well since this is my one-man home studio, and only one device will be played at a time.

Thanks Eleos. What you said was very helpful and it makes sense now. The light setting actually is helping, although not perfect but I will adjust to it. It makes me feel a whimp:-) I played for years on a Yamaha P200 with super heavy action so I don't know why this is an issue for me but whatever works.

So it's been interesting having the Yamaha P525, ES8 and ES 920 together in my own little shoot-out. The ES8 and P 525 both win on looks compared to this unattractive looking ES 920 but the 920 is the clear winner on sound for me. (although the ES8 still sounds good too, just in comparison the 920 stands out) I have to get used to the mechanical key bounce seeming to resonate in the body of the piano, which may also be part of what is making it sound better overall (making the speakers sound fuller).

I am going to miss the Yamahas keyboard though, it just feels more pleasant to play. But only in comparison, it's not like the ES's feel bad, they are fine unless I am going back and forth.

I got a MIDI In/2 MIDI Thru box from MIDI solutions. Works like a charm. All that old gear seemed to have this stuff built in. Fairly rare nowadays.

After playing a semi weighted action for a week, playing the piano is fatiguing. Kawai told me they'd set me up with the new repair shop that day when I called them last week. They still haven't..... life goes on, but I think by now everyone gets customer support is from Kawai.