Yamaha P225 vs Kawai ES120: Ultimate Digital Piano Showdown

wow that yamaha sounds incredible

kawai not having the USB audio interface means it cannot be connected to an AUDIO INTERFACE like focusrite?

Even if Yamaha could have add more acoustic piano samples and electric pianos or other instruments, the distance for reaching Roland fp30x had been less than now. And with a keyboard with 3 sensors for each key than 2 of actual one Ghc. However it's better of Ghs, indeed!!!!!👍👍👍

How do you record the pianos?

Hallo Stud, for me this competition has as winner Yamaha p225

Since there are now so many digital pianos which are highly dependent on apps, isn't it time to do an app comparison review? We need to push manufacturers to improve these things.

Multi-track recording/sequencing (even 4 tracks) would be nice, but I know that Smart Pianist can't do that.

Excellent review, thank you very much, I love tenor keys of pianos and you are one of the few who do reviews playing the tenor keys, they sound impressive!!

One question...does the Yamaha P225 sound louder than the P125? I see that the successor now has large speakers and the P125 has somewhat small speakers...

I was able to test a Yamaha P225 in a store. The black keys near the felt area can be pressed down softly. The white keys near the felt area is at the limit of being able to be pressed down softly. The P125 was slightly easier. The other pianos like Roland FP-30X, 90X, didn't have such an issue.

Looking for keyboard with many decent sounds.

Many people don't care much about sounds other than grand piano but i do. I would like to have good harpsichords, organs, bass, choir, e.pianos and I could sacrifice some quality of grand piano for that. What keyboard should I choose under 800 euros? I've watched some reviews but they don't focus on second category sounds. At the moment I am considering between kawai es120 and Yamaha p225 (same price in my area). Maybe you have some other propositions for me? Any help appreciated :)

Hello, Stu-san. I am writing from Japan and I purchased ES120 yesterday after watching your video and trying both of them. Your video was so supporting for my decision. I prefer the sound of KAWAI which is generally called deep and quiet in Japan. The sound of P-225 sounded bright and sparkling for me and I felt it was kind of childish. The price in Japan ES-120 is about USD480 and P225 is about USD360 (@JPY146/USD).

I own a 2022 Kawai CA99 ($6,800) and a 2022 Kawai ES120 ($800) the model shown in this review. I actually prefer playing the ES120 over the CA99 because the action and response are that darn good in the ES120.

I think you skipped the Rhodes on the Yamaha.

From the review: the Kawai ES120 "has the fattest raw audio samples... super authentic acoustic piano experience... very colorful, very rich and warm sound"... "the Kawai has the longer key stick than the Yamaha"... the Yamaha has "shorter key sticks" (harder to play as you play further back on the keys))

What really surprises me is that, to my ears Yamaha simply sound more pleasant and somehow "tamed", while Kawai sounds somehow broader but "wilder". In other words though samples on Kawai seem to be better or closer to real piano, Yamaha sounds somehow better to me. Better is not good word, though. Different, closer to my taste. To be clear, I never owned Yamaha keyboard, I actually had Kawai long time ago, so I certainly I am not biased by name of manufacturer. I don't know, maybe Yamaha piano sound somehow dominated pop music for several decades so it stayed in my mind as "right" piano.
I also like very much different choices of piano sounds on Kawai. I don't know now what I'd buy from those two pianos 🤔
PS Thank you for stellar presentation, as usually 👍👍👍

Hey @MerriamPianos, is kawai es120 good for learning piano? If the action is too light that means it will disadvantage me when switching mg to a grand for example? Imagine playing on kawai es120 for 4 years and then switching to grand, will i still be as good on the grand or i will not be ?

Will you review the P145? maybe even compare it to the old p45. I'd love to see Stu tackling it. Great quality as always, never fails to entertain me

Kawai sounds more convincing.

As usual, a comprehensive and detailed comparison! Thanks Stu! By the way, I don't entirely agree that shorter keysticks don't matter for beginners. As a piano teacher, I can say that small hands always have to play “inside” from the start in order to reach black keys as soon as the first accidentals are required. Children in particular will struggle with the heavier touch as they also lack the muscle strength to compensate. The children then tend to stretch their fingers and thus train an unfavorable technique. This is also a problem with some upright pianos. This should be taken into account, especially if the instrument is being purchased for children.

Listening on headphones - neither of them sound *amazing*....but the Yamaha definitely has the edge and sounds more natural. The Kawai tries to be more hyper-realistic, but it winds up sounding less convincing as a result...it has a bit more of a tinny, "emulation-y" sound. Whereas the Yamaha isn't trying that hard, and while it sounds less 3-dimensional, it also sounds better as a result - it does what it does relatively seamlessly...if I heard someone singing and playing piano on the Yamaha, the piano sound wouldn't attract my attention at all, and I mean that in a good way - it would just go unnoticed because it just sounds like a piano to the point where unless you're really looking for it, you're not going to notice it's digital. Even if it doesn't sound like the best piano in the world, it sounds right. If I heard someone singing and playing on the Kawai, I would find the piano sound distracting and unconvincing.

I was about to buy the Kawai but the sound difference with the yamaha is night in day. The kawai sounded so thin and cheap compared to the rich tone of the yamaha

They both sound great to me. But i am very picky with the feeling of the keys. They changed the key bed of the p525 so it is different from the p515. My question is what keyboard is the closest ro a grand piano. And feel more grippy and less slippery. I want the closest possible to a grand. But upgrading from a gear4music sdp2 I guess it will be a huge jump...

Thanx for the wonderful review, I cant afford both at once, so I'll get the yamaha, this month and the kawai next month! THANKS AGAIN!, I'M very SENSITIVE TO THE ACTION of the keys and HAVING GROWN UP ON A SHIMMEL 6 FT GRAND and a 9ft yamaha.
I bought a fender strat today, funny thing I've never played a strat before, so It'll be an interesting experience.- used to playing gibson les pauls and other electric guitars , Ibanez, telecasters etc. Great review very helpful!!!

Hello Stu, can you review the Fesley Digital Piano, 88 Keys Weighted Hammer Action Keyboard Piano?

I saw on a piano key size guide on sweetwater that the keys on keyboards are a lot smaller than the acoustic piano. Does that mean those keyboards like midi full size keyboards we have are smaller keys in size? Can you demonstrate that or show the exact length the key size should be? Those having no access to acoustic piano will be helped. Also the demo comparisons of the exact weight towards the upper side of the keys will be great. thanks.

Alas, Yamaha in its model kept some metal artificial traces if compare to this Kawai one's.... I felt that Kawai is closer to the real grand piano sound

I guess the next logical comparison would be against a PX-S1100? 😁 It would be interesting to get an opinion on the short key length of both.

Great comparison, from my ears the Yamaha sounds slightly more defined on the bottom and more crisp overall.
Always enjoy listening to your virtuoso playing ;-)

Hi Stu, I'm looking for a digital piano and confused between the Roland RP107 and Yamaha YDP arius YDP 145. I saw your comparison between both of them but I'm curious which is the overall winner between them? Looking forward to your reply as it's my birthday and I want a new piano. Also, I am close to an advance player. Looking forward to your reply.

Great work! Can you compare them with the Yamaha CK88! That one doesn't seem to have resonance modelling and it's so light so does it have short keys too?

How is the bluetooth midi on the Kawai? Is there a lag?

Do any of these have Midi2.0?

Kawai seemed to be very synthetic. Yamaha, more natural.

If your setup of Direct line on and Speaker is similar in both pianos, I could state that 4 speakers including the tweeters on P225 definitely fail their job. Ignoring the tone engine in 2 pianos, the bass sound is distorted on Yamaha. Tbh, P225 is perfectly downgraded product even in the key action. About portable piano key action, roland pha4 outperforms the others then comes the kawai. ES120 and FP30x personally I think they re better choices.

To my ears the Yamaha sounds like a real grand , while with the kawai I was able to tell its digital . Yamaha for my opinion is the boss of digital pianos

kawai is the actual boss against yamaha but i would say the sound is much improved in p225 are compared to the previous p125. Kawai has more bright tone and warm specially when we go to lower octives> I have recently brought Kawai and i am very happy and satisfied. Thank you sir for taking the request of my previous comment.

We wait review for the new Yamaha p525 !! Its worthy improvement from the Yamaha p515?

Clearly Kawai sounds more digital. Yamaha sounds more acoustic.

Can you please include a popular classical piece when comparing sounds? (Fur Elise or Debussy Clair De...) it is very helpful

Thanks for the interesting review. Several points came up that I'd like to add to or qualify.

Yes, these pianos are very closely matched. Here in Europe the ES120 is cheaper than the P-225, and accordingly offers better value for money IMO. As for saving weight, both instruments weigh virtually the same.

But if weight matters... the most portable piano with a graded weighted action is still the P-121, both in terms of weight and width. It's inexpensive, and it's much easier to squeeze into a car, at the sacrifice of a few keys. And (unlike the P-125a) the P-121 still has audio over USB.

With the arrival of the P-225, you might ask who would bother with the P-125a now. Well, here in Europe, there are some amazing deals on that model right now.

Not enough is made of the variance in tone on the assorted piano patches. We hear again and again from reviewers and viewers how Kawai patches are thicker/richer/warmer. Certainly, the first patch on any Yamaha is clear and crisp, but the classical piano patch (typically the third one) is decidely thicker, and very attractive in a home setting IMO. The Kawai EX patch is deemed to be brighter, and closer to some Yamaha patches, but IMO it is outdated and harsh compared to any Yamaha patch.

The editable aspect of the Kawai patches is a real winner at this pricepoint, and so is the MIDI and audio over bluetooth, though cables are normally a bit more reliable. In my experience, bluetooth devices typically lose the first note on playback. This could be critical if it's the first note/bleep of a count-in or of a backing track.

I do not agree that Kawai portable digital pianos normally have heavier actions than the corresponding Yamaha models. That was true up until the ES8 and P-255, but roles have been reversed. The ES120, ES560 and ES920 all have lighter actions. In the case of the P-515, the difference is incredibly pronounced. Another role-reversal aspect is build. Kawai is making lighter, less sturdy portables than before, but some of us prefer that to lugging monsters around. Yamaha's short keystick solution on the P-225, however, does not impress me.

It's a shame that neither model offers battery power.

Good vid. Very informative.

Thanks for making this! I just got a es120 as my first piano and it’s great to play. One thing I noticed with the built-in speakers is a faint buzz (doesn’t change with volume) and goes away with headphones, have you noticed that?

Ese sonido CFX suena mas tosco a comparación del DGX 670 o un YDP144...

For me the only way to hear what's what is for a Little Richard, Liberace or chopin to be played. All that Freinds vib is some what apologetic to what can be achieved.
Other than that, thank you for your video. I really enjoyed it..

Yamaha is ok. But Kawai has life, spirit. Of course this is not his best model, but kawai is unique.

Both sound pretty fake and it is easy to point out a digital piano is playing. Having said that, the piano sound from the Kawai is worse. Maybe the Yamaha would sound well in a band but as a solo instrument is pretty unacceptable.

Great review Stu. I have an idea. We selected our digital preference by comparing acoustic pianos in the store. Surprised how great they compared.

Could you review the Kawai digital with a Kawai acoustic and same for the Yamaha? Unsure if it’ll be worthwhile.

I prefer the Yamaha sound 🎊 🎉

Does anyone know if the es120 would have latency issues when combined with Pianoteq?

I expected to hear more sophisticated and warmer sound from Kawai and I usually don't like Yamaha's sharp sounds, but this time I should say, Yamaha sounded much better. Kawai's sound was very shallow and toys like. I am not sure why.