Introduction
In this article, we will be comparing two of the top-selling digital pianos in the world of any category. We will be doing a proper side-by-side shootout between these offerings from two of the heavyweights in the piano world: Kawai and Yamaha. Along with Roland and Casio, Kawai and Yamaha have become dominant players in the electric piano market. Today, we have the Kawai KDP110 vs Yamaha YDP-144 digital piano.
We’ll be discussing some of the key differences that we’ve noticed. From the action to the accompanying software that each company makes, this will be a jam-packed and thorough comparison of these two top-sellers.
So, without further ado, let’s get started right away with the Kawai KDP110 versus the Yamaha YDP-144.
Discontinued Model: The Kawai KDP110 Digital Piano has been replaced by the KDP120, please see our YouTube review here.
Kawai vs Yamaha | Overview
These instruments are so close in so many respects with price being the most obvious and the main reason why these two get compared so often. They even look quite similar (especially in the premium rosewood finish)!
They’re about the same height. They have very similar cabinet designs. Really, at first glance, this looks like we’re comparing the Honda Civic with the Toyota Corolla or the Honda Accord with the Toyota Camry. These are directly competing models from two of the largest piano companies in the world in the most popular price range as well. With that said, you are not going to find a better matchup than the Kawai KDP110 and Yamaha YDP-144.
Piano Sounds: Kawai KDP110 vs Yamaha YDP-144
We’re going to start with sound as we often do. It’s what people tend to respond to the most because, if you are a beginner that has never played piano before and this is your first instrument, the action is going to be something that you may need some guidance on. But, the sound is something that everybody’s ear already has a pretty good judgment of in regard to what they would like to hear. You’ve been listening to piano on the radio and there’s some reason you’re drawn to the piano in the first place, so there’s a good chance you’ve already developed (even if you don’t know you have) a bit of a preference for a darker sound, a lighter sound, a more colorful sound, a clean sound, or whatever it is that you hear in your head when you consider your ideal piano tone. With that said, a sound is always a great place for us to start.
16-watts vs 40-watts Speakers
There are some specs associated with sound with digital pianos that allow us to make some determinations about what we can expect, but it doesn’t always tell the full story. We’ll start with the specs. On the Yamaha YDP-144, Yamaha rates its speakers at 8 watts a piece, making a total of 16 watts.
Kawai rates their KDP110 speakers at 20 watts a piece, making a total of 40 watts. Now, as some of you may already know, there is not necessarily a fixed linear relationship between decibel output and wattage. So, in other words, 40 watts is not twice as loud as 20 watts, because there’s a logarithmic curve to that, and how you rate wattage can be a little bit different. But when you have that big a difference, there is no doubt for sure that you are going to get a larger, fatter sound on the Kawai than you do on the Yamaha.
There’s just more juice flowing to those speakers and the speakers themselves are a little bit larger. When we play the Kawai versus the Yamaha, you can definitely hear that there is a bit of a difference down in the bass with that Kawai.
Polyphony
There’s a second part of digital sound that we can measure with numbers and that’s called polyphony. Polyphony refers to the number of notes or tones that the instrument is capable of sounding simultaneous. To quickly describe what this principle means, if you play two notes at once, you’re hearing a polyphony of two, and when I play three notes at once, you’re hearing a polyphony of three, and so on and so forth. Now, both of these instruments have a polyphony of 192. So, many of you are probably thinking to yourself, “well, I only have 5 fingers each on my right hand and left hand, so how would I ever use up 192?” Well, the answer is you won’t.
What is the Use of Polyphony?
It is quite possible to use up polyphonies of 64 when you’re playing on your own and even 96 potentially. Where 192 actually becomes useful is if you are using a layered sound, so two sounds at the same time. For instance, if you were layering a piano and a string sound simultaneously, one note is using a polyphony of two. Furthermore, if you’re holding the pedal down and you’re going right from the bottom to the top of the keyboard, you actually start to use up a lot of that polyphony. So, 64 and 92 may sound like high numbers, but they’re not necessarily. With both the Yamaha and Kawai pianos’ 192-note polyphony, you have lots of headroom and will never need to worry about the instrument not being able to sound all of the notes simultaneously.
Kawai’s Harmonic Imaging Sound Engine
We’ve talked about the wattage on the speakers. We’ve talked about polyphony. Now, it’s time to get a little more granular. One of the aspects of the Kawai that really made the KDP110 stand out when it came out, was that it uses individual 88-note stereo sampling via its harmonic imaging sound engine. This means that when you’re playing the Shigeru Kawai SK-EX concert grand piano patch on the KDP110, which is the default piano sound, every time you play a note, it actually triggers a stereo sample of an SK-EX that’s been played. That’s significant because a lot of digital pianos in the lower range, and this would generally be considered lower mid-range, will actually not have a sample for every single note.
They’ll have a sample for every fourth note or every fifth note and then that sample actually gets stretched a little bit to save memory and to save space in making a more efficient processing environment. But, you lose a lot of the specific character that you get on a real piano where individual notes have unique qualities depending on where it falls in the overall design of the instrument.
So, in other words, full 88-key sampling gives you richness because of all of the imperfections that 88-note sampling actually captures and humanizes. It gives an authenticity that you miss when the sound is synthesized. That’s a really interesting differentiator that the KDP110 has that the YDP-144 does not. It does, however, use the same principle of sampling by capturing the sound of a real grand piano. While it’s not across all 88 keys, it is still using a CFX grand piano as its main tonal source and I do like the CFX sample a lot.
Yamaha’s CFX
Both instruments in real life are actually quite different. Kawai’s SK-EX 9-foot grand is an intensely colorful instrument with a very dynamic and lush tone. The Yamaha CFX is super precise. It has a lot of very beautifully crafted upper harmonics. I wouldn’t describe it as being quite as warm in the lower ranges as the SK-EX, but it does have this sort of cannon-like bass that’s quite beautiful as well. I would almost say that the SK-EX is a bit more of a European sound whereas the CFX has elements of a New York Steinway mixed in with some of the traditional Yamaha tonal aspects.
Dual Sound Modes
Both of these pianos have dual sound modes, which allow you to play two sounds or instruments at the same time. I should also mention that both of these have dual sound modes so you can play two sounds at the same time. Both instruments also allow for the ability to split up the keyboard for two players via Yamaha’s “duo mode” and Kawai’s “four-hands mode”.
Kawai’s Virtual Technician App
Kawai actually uses two pieces of software. One of the pieces of software is used to edit the piano tone, which Kawai calls the Virtual Technician app. Now, this is a really important point: this app is only available on iPad. That is a bit of a bone that I have to pick with Kawai because it would be really great if this was available on other smart devices. But, at this point, the Virtual Technician and its accompanying Smart Mode feature are only available on iPad. So, please do not assume that you will be able to have this work on an iPhone 10 or another mobile phone. It does not work.
Functions of Virtual Technician App
On the iPad app, the flexible Virtual Technician functions as a tool to access a huge number of parameters and presets that you can edit. You have the ability to edit the touch curve from very sensitive, which simulates or creates the impression in your brain that it’s a lighter touch, to normal, to heavy, which means that, to get the same dynamic range, the player will be required to input a little more energy, or off, which essentially shuts off the touch sensitivity altogether. You also have a voicing parameter that changes how hard the hammer is.
There are settings for normal, mellow, dynamic, and bright and you can hear those differences vividly. For instance, with the dynamic voicing setting, the sound is darker when you play softer and much brighter when you play louder.
There is also a damper resonance parameter from which you can control key-off effect, hammer delay, top board, decay, stretch tuning, temperament, and pedal. Of course, you can also transpose. So, ultimately, you have a multitude of options to completely customize the KDP110, which is pretty incredible and a testament to the sound technology that Kawai has developed.
Yamaha Apps
Over on the Yamaha YDP-144 side, Yamaha has a very nicely laid out app. By all accounts, this is a better-designed user experience than what’s on the Kawai app. However, you’re getting far fewer things in which to edit. On the piano side within the editing mode, you have two samples to choose between: the CFX grand and the pop grand which I believe is a sample generated from Yamaha’s C7 grand piano.
You can control the reverb and choose between recital hall, concert hall, chamber, club, or off. In addition to that, you can also adjust the touch curve.
You can also adjust parameters such as the master tuning, damper resonance, and individual key settings. So, comparatively speaking, the Yamaha YDP-144 has four adjustable settings versus over ten on the Kawai KDP110.
Additional Piano Sounds
Beyond the piano sound as its default, both of these instruments have the ability to edit the sound. We will stick with the piano sounds for now because once we get out of the piano sounds, and these both have sounds other than piano, your ability to edit the characteristics of the tone dramatically goes down as you are limited to a handful of global settings you can adjust like touch curve, EQ, and reverb. Neither instrument is really designed to give you that type of editing ability with other sounds such as Rhodes or strings.
It’s really the acoustic piano tones that let you meaningfully alter the sound. Both companies offer partner software on mobile devices, which makes the sound design process even more fun.
In terms of other available instrument sounds, both models fall somewhere between 10 and 20 sounds. The Kawai has 15 sounds while the Yamaha has just slightly fewer than that at 10 sounds. While we’ve already discussed Yamaha’s CFX grand sound, they also have a mellow grand, pop grand, and stage piano on the piano side of things. In addition to that, the YDP-144 features DX, harpsichord, vibes, pipe organ, jazz organ, and strings. So that is the full summary of the sounds you can get on the Yamaha.
Over on the Kawai side, there are quite a few different instruments and sounds beyond the 88-note stereo sampled SK-EX concert grand piano sound that we discussed earlier.
There’s a studio grand, mellow grand, a modern piano, a few e-pianos, DX-like synth, jazz organ, church organ, harpsichord, vibraphone, strings, string ensemble, slow strings, choir, and new age sounding pad. So, while there are more sounds on the KDP110, both pianos give you a very similar selection and very similar types of sounds and instruments.
Wrap Up
In conclusion, there are pros and cons on both sides. The Yamaha app is definitely a more attractive app that is easier to use. Graphically, it’s really clear as to what you’re adjusting. However, there are very few parameters that you are able to adjust.
On the Kawai side, you have an insane amount of control and editing ability when it comes to the piano sounds, but the app is not quite as up-to-date in terms of its graphical interface. Furthermore, from a compatibility standpoint, the Yamaha is superior as you are not restricted to just an iPad.
Ultimately, the vast majority of customers for either model will be playing it as a replacement or as an alternative to an acoustic piano which is aligned with the intention of both Kawai and Yamaha, as most of the technology and effort has gone into the piano sound and the piano touch.
To summarize, we have a 40-watt versus 16-watt speaker system, both instruments with 192-note polyphony, and two beautiful acoustic piano samples on board (although the 88-note stereo sampling certainly gives Kawai’s KDP110 an edge), and the ability to manipulate sonic parameters. In regard to the editing apps, the KDP110 has a greater breadth of options and precision as a result, but the Yamaha is very easy to use and a more user-friendly option. In both cases though, I love using the apps because I think it just makes the whole experience a little bit more engaging. We’re used to using screens to control devices around us, so I think this just brings the piano as an instrument further into the modern age.
At this point, you’ve probably already developed a preference based on some of the sound descriptions and features, but, either way, we will move on to examining the action of both pianos next.
Piano Action: Kawai KDP110 vs Yamaha YDP-144
Kawai’s Responsive Hammer Compact Action
Let’s now jump into the keyboard action. The Kawai KDP110 features an update to an action that is actually still in production. Kawai is still making the Responsive Hammer Compact I, which still goes into the ES110.
Responsive Hammer Compact II
The KDP110, however, has the Responsive Hammer Compact II keyboard action and there are two main differences between it and its predecessor. The most obvious improvement is that the RHC II has a triple sensor on it. So, for people wanting to use this as a MIDI controller or in conjunction with software like GarageBand, Pro Tools, or Logic, the triple sensor makes a really big difference.
The other reason why the KDP110 has been given that extra wattage (40 watts versus the 16 watts on the Yamaha YDP-144) is that, when you have a more accurate sensor, you can give a wider dynamic range to play with without fear of those sensor inaccuracies being exposed by bigger amplifiers or bigger speakers. Because the louder you get, the more obvious it becomes if there are any “blips” present in your MIDI input. So, the triple sensor permits you to have a larger dynamic output on the instrument that it’s driving.
So that’s really the big update with the RHC II action. It does not have escapement, so it definitely still sits below the RH III, which is the action you find in Kawai’s CN series.
Their MP7 also has the RH III as well as their Kawai ES8. Nord’s Grand also uses the RH III action. It’s a really gorgeous action. It has escapement, a triple sensor, and a slightly different geometry than the RHC II. So, from a weighting standpoint, the action feels slightly on the light side. It’s not a super-light action, but you can definitely tell the difference between it and the RH III.
Responsive Hammer III
The RH III feels like there’s just a little bit more substance behind the mechanism. But what’s really great about the RHII action, and something I didn’t necessarily find in the Kawai ES110’s RHC I action, is that when you really start to play aggressively, you do not hear a click where you have different pieces of plastic making contact laterally with each other.
They seem to have resolved that issue with this second-generation Responsive Hammer Compact action. It’s a very quick, easy, fluid action to play on.
Key Texture
There is also a micro-texture on both the white keys as well as the black keys. I really like that balance of both grip and slipperiness on the key. I could play on these keys for hours and still feel really satisfied with the playing experience.
Yamaha’s Graded Hammer Standard Action
On the Yamaha YDP-144, we have a familiar friend in the GHS action. This is an action that Yamaha has had out for a while. When comparing the actions between the KDP110 and YDP-144, I think there are a few differences that stand out to me. One is the lack of texture on the Yamaha’s white keys. It makes it a little less comfortable to play in certain settings, but it does give the white keys more grip.
For people who are very used to playing on digital pianos, I don’t think you’d really notice. But there are definitely certain techniques and certain playing styles where a little bit of slipperiness on the key is actually something that you need.
Key Texture
A matte surface does make the key a little bit more grippy. That’s either going to be a plus or minus depending on the pianist and their preference. There is a texture on the black keys, which makes them just a bit more slippery than the white keys, which is great.
Dual Sensor vs Triple Sensor
Another important point is that the Yamaha piano has a dual sensor versus a triple sensor. In a live playing situation, I don’t think that’s going to create any problems at all, but where you might notice it is, if you’re doing a lot of MIDI inputting, there may be some wacky notes that are just a little softer than what they were supposed to be there or a little louder than what they were supposed to be.
You may wind up doing quite a bit of MIDI editing after the fact if you’re doing any sort of high-end inputting into a DAW.
Wrap Up
In summary, there is no escapement on either piano, a notable difference in key texture, and triple sensor versus dual sensor. Otherwise, from a construction standpoint, both actions feel like they’re going to last the same number of years. I would put both of these actions in about the 1500 range.
To clarify, that is not a manufacturer-supplied number. That is literally just my estimate in terms of how long it takes me to wear out an action given my experience. Given that I have worn out the action of a digital piano before a few times, I’ve actually been able to measure this fairly well. Every single time I bust up action, it usually demands replacement keys, sensors, or contacts.
Now that we’ve thoroughly examined the sound and action of these two top-selling digital pianos, we will now explore one more category: non-musical features.
Additional Features
Both of these instruments are home digitals. We call pianos of this type home digitals when they come with their own cases and have a triple pedal on them (damper, sostenuto, and una corda).
Pedal System and Cabinet Design
Both of these models have a triple pedal system, built-in speakers, and easy-to-navigate control panels. They really are supposed to sit in your living room or your bedroom or wherever you happen to want your piano and, more or less, look like a nice miniature apartment piano.
They both have built-in music rest and they both have sliding key covers, which is actually something that I would suggest that everybody utilizes. No matter what brand of digital piano you’re using, try to cover the keys when you’re not using the piano, especially if you’re in a dusty situation.
The grand feel pedal systems on both are metal. They’re actually quite high-quality. They’re designed to take a major beating and last, hence why both manufacturers have the confidence to supply an excellent warranty for each instrument.
USB Connections
Both pianos have USB connections so that you can hook these up to your computer as well as dual headphone ports. Neither piano has dedicated audio outputs, meaning that, when you’re recording with them, you actually need some sort of an external speaker to hear them in the case that you’re taking the audio sample because, as soon as you plug into the headphone jacks, you will no longer hear the local speakers. Both Yamaha and Kawai have higher-end models that offer that feature, but neither one of these models happens to.
Kawai’s SHS Spatial Headphone Sound
Kawai’s KDP110 features their SHS spatial headphone sound. For players that will be restricted to silent practice, the SHS headphone sound is definitely a massive benefit. There are even headphone type settings that optimize the player’s listening experience depending on what type of headphones they are using.
Bluetooth MIDI
Another important feature difference to note that’s somewhat musically related is that the Kawai is equipped with Bluetooth MIDI. While the Yamaha YDP-144 does not have any wireless technology on it, it does have USB-MIDI connectivity and built-in USB audio interface capability. So, in other words, when you plug this into software like Logic or GarageBand, it’s able to send audio to and from the instrument, meaning that you can use these speakers as your main speakers all through a USB cable.
Naturally, there are people who are going to find that useful. It replaces the need for a small external interface or using your computer for that purpose. Of course, there’s going to be a lot of time where that wireless Bluetooth MIDI actually comes in handy because it eliminates the need for a cable, but the Bluetooth is not transmitting audio information, it is transmitting MIDI information exclusively.
From that perspective, Kawai and Yamaha are looking at two very different use cases and applying two different solutions to them.
Kawai’s “Concert Magic” Feature
Kawai’s KDP110 also includes their “Concert Magic” feature with which hundreds of pre-loaded songs can be played by pressing any random keys. The correct note will still sound, but the player will have control over the tempo of the music. In other words, the player becomes the metronome or conductor.
This is in addition to the Burgmüller, Czerny, Beyer etudes, and Alfred lesson songs that are built-in.
Conclusions
Hopefully, this shootout comparison between Kawai’s KDP110 and Yamaha’s YDP-144 has shed a little bit of light on which piano might be the best fit for you. It’s impossible for me to tell everybody in every context which one is better because everybody’s situation is a little bit different. With that said, I hope that these insights have helped your research process and helped narrow things down a little bit more.
Shop More Digital Pianos Here.
