Kawai MP11 Professional Stage Piano

I've always waned to have a grand piano in my house. Unfortunately, I don't have enough space for one of those, so I got the closest thing I could. This piano feels and sounds fantastic. It is very realistic. The keys are made out of wood, and you can feel the difference compared to other keyboards. For instance, I tried the Kawai ES8 at my local music store and although it had an excellent sound, the action didn't feel as good as the MP11 partially because the ES8 keys were made out of plastic. The MP11 also has other sounds like E-piano and strings, but I haven't tried those that much since I mainly bought this as a piano; but they do sounds decent.One thing you should keep in mind if you decide to get this keyboard is that it weights about 100 pounds. You're going to need someone to help you get it into your house, out of the box, and onto the stand.Overall, I love this keyboard.

Not sure how other people rate this keyboard 5 stars. It is the worst keyboard I have ever played. I have complained to Kawai over and over but they insist we don’t have it set up right. We have worked in”sound” for years so we know what we are doing. This keyboard is impossible to adjust sound. I think it is damaged but Kawai doesn’t even have a repair man near us.I suggest if you want a keyboard buy a YamahaI have 2 that are 1/2 the price that sound better than the MP 11

Bought the Kawai MP11 on comments on action feel, and Agree it is Quite Good. I've owned many pianos, used to work for a a shop, and have played several acoustic-Grands. The action is as close to a quality acoustic-Grand as any, and better that a few I've played. You will Not be disappointed. And; the Sampled Sounds are good as well...

If you're looking for a piano that feels like the real thing, this is it. This thing is amazing. I've had mine for over a year now and I love it more and more. This thing is heavy so if you plan on using it as a stage piano, it may not work for you if you don't want the weight. Otherwise, it plays and sounds amazing. If you don't like the sound of the grand pianos, there are so many tweakable parameters that you will be able to find the sound you like. I can't say enough about this piano. I have 2 other piano keyboards sitting in my studio that I no longer touch. I use this as my go to midi controller, I use it for recording, and performance as well. I hardly play my Estes Baby Grand any more. I can plug this thing in, put on some headphones and practice forever. You can get all the feel you want out of this baby. I can't recommend it enough. It doesn't have it's own speakers but Mono Price sells some good powered monitor speakers that sound great. Don't buy a stage piano until you try this one out.

Amazing keyboard. I'm a professional pianist, mostly jazz but some classical. I've never before found a keyboard that truly felt like the action on a grand piano. This one does. Pianists can definitely use proper technique and can get great dynamics. If you don't like the way the velocity responds, you can dial it in to your own taste. The thing is heavy, bulky and finding a case isn't as easy as you would hope. But it is worth it. Nothing else comes close.

After some shopping, in-person testing and a lot of research I bought an MP11SE (locally) as MY early Christmas present this year. I'm on the "honeymoon" but , so far, it's "The Bomb".PROS: Very realistic keyboard action. The weighting of the keys, the response, the feel, absolutely beats the crap of the upright piano I had as a kid. I probably would have practiced more if I had a piano like this in 5th grade. This MP11SE rivals some high quality uprights and grands I have played. I used to own a brand new Yamaha U3 upright in the 80's and it served me well for 5 years. This Kawai MP11SE keyboard feels to me to be the equal of that piano or close to it. Very simple layout but has deeper capabilities IF YOU WANT TO BOTHER. It comes with a lot of I/O (Input , output) jacks and USB Midi connector. The built-in input mixer is great. I just hook up a USB cable to my laptop (for MIDI) and an audio out cable to the Kawai (from the laptop) and I have gotten a very good starter level of integration. Let me explain: I *** LOVE *** products where you ** * don't *** have to read the manual to get started and with this piano you don't! Put it on the keyboard stand, plug it in, turn on the power and it defaults to the soundbank of the best Kawai grand piano. Plug in headphones or patch cords to powered speakers. It sounds great! Very believable. The sound quality, the articulation, the realism - sheesh! I was thinking I was buying this just for the action and was going to have to buy additional piano samples like Embertone, Garritan or Ivory Keys. Now I'm not so sure. It sounds really damn good! There is also a totally separate section for Electric Pianos and a third bank of string sounds. You can layer those on each other but WISELY Kawai kept all those sounds /functions totally discrete / separate such that it's immediately apparent what sound you are bringing up. NO CONFUSION, NO $#*!% layers of menu to get started. This is a stage piano and it delivers that function in spades and beyond.Did I mention that it comes with an excellent internal Reverb (room ambience processing) unit? That is the icing that cements the realism of this piano. The defaults sound just great. NOW IF YOU WANT IT - you can waste your life : ) fussing with wading into menus till the cows come home. That parameter playground is all there waiting for you, but it sounds so good out of the box - for my purposes -- why should I bother?? and I don't have to! THAT is the beauty of this piano. I have no plans to mess with that stuff, yet I'm not limited if I change my mind down the road. TLDR: IMMEDIATE USABILITY with LOW HASSLES.OTHER GOOD THINGS:It's "ONLY" 75 lbs. 2 healthy adults can move this safely - they just need to coordinate well.DIMENSIONS: English: 54 ⅓” (W) x 18” (D) x 7 ½” (H) Metric: 1380 (W) x 453 (D) x 188 (H) mmOne of the major selling points of this piano for me - aside from the keyboard action - was that I could get it down the staircase and fit it through the tight spots and some of the narrow doorways of my older house. If I need to get it serviced, it will not be a giant deal to get it back upstairs. Try that with a full console piano!OTHER GOOD THINGS: The extended depth of it's flat top with a lot of button-free area near the top back is a bonus because, inevitably, I am going to want to put a laptop, a metronome, a gadget, yadda yadda there and - it's available. Not all stage pianos or synth workstations allow this. In short: You have a place for your inevitable "auxiliary stuff"* Overall: It feels solidly built, especially the outer case. The paint job on the metal casework, is well done / tasteful. There is no wood on the case ends but it's very solidly built.* Tons of connection options - XLR (balanced) and 1/4 inch (6.35mm ) jacks.* You get a substantial 3 pedal pedalboard. I can't say that the middle pedal really does much but the soft and damper pedals work fine.CONS: The very top top white key didn't work when I tested this at the dealer. The sensor had failed. This was the last one in stock - anywhere - until mid December. Dealer agreed to fix it and they did. The Kawai tech came out and replaced sensor. It works fine now.Now, if you are a gigging musician and don't have your own road crew, there are stage pianos 25 pounds lighter (Roland comes to mind), and you can have a good time with those kind of keyboards.But this here is your least compromised yet still portable piano with a ** wonderful ** action.Back in 2005, I bought a less Kawai Stage Piano (MP4) and that earlier model was "ok" for what it was ($1100 price) at the time but I couldn't gain any serious technique - and was not motivated to do so.NOW: This MP11SE is 3 to 4 generations beyond that earlier piano. The difference is night and day. This digital piano is a real enough instrument that you can perform some serious repertoire on it. No, you aren't going to play "Spider Fingers" like Bruce Hornsby, perform roulades, or lightening trills on this. But really that would be a challenge on most uprights and lesser maintained grands -- IF one had the technique. And also, who am I kidding? The days when I was going to play 30 minutes of warm up scales and arpeggios are long gone. I am a weekend warrior who wants to master certain tunes he loves. I speculate that for a lot of people like me out there, this piano is enough. More than enough.... or possibly overkill. Much fun and satisfaction can be had with this piano. I feel I have arrived. I'm in hog heaven. : )If you are at a serious classical concert level, this piano would not be your main instrument. You could however transfer your technique to this piano - in a pinch - quite well.SUMMARY: Things have come a long way. Your kid (and you) no longer have to wreck your ear training due to an out of tune piano that you should keep away from the heater or the air conditioner. You don't have to pay a piano tuner 2X a year to keep it in tune. With the MP11SE you have a substantial yet semi-portable instrument that you can actually build up finger / hand muscle tone when you play scales on it. It's well built and from my experience so far, the manufacturer stands behind it.I CAN RECOMMEND THIS PIANO. THIS MAY BE THE BEST CURRENT DEAL IN AN AFFORDABLE (Under $3000), MOVABLE PIANO.Addendum: I use Sennheiser 595 ($200 headphones) with this - sounds great. I bought a Pyle (brand) "Z stand" in the $80 price range and it supports this 75lb MP11SE very well. I'm using old Korg MM-25 powered mini-monitors and the sound is very satisfying.If you have the budget and want to spoil yourself, consider purchasing a pair of QSC K 8.2 speakers. You will have a totally decadent experience. The only reason I didn't buy them was due to space constraints.If you want a full case piano with built in stand and speakers look at the Kawai CA97 / CA99 which have slightly better actions than the MP11SE. More money of course.