Kawai RX vs Boston vs Estonia

[abbygailey]

I am a Kawai RX2 owner interested in possible upgrade.  I have thought about more expensive brands such as shigeru or Steinway but they are just way too out of my budget.  Is there any benefit I can gain from changing Kawai RX to Boston or Estonia? 

Also, second question is for people who can be truly honest without bias.  Are hand made pianos that much better than machine made if proper regulation/voicing/tune up can be done on the machine made piano?

Thanks.

[49410enrique]

the kawaii rx is an incredible piano and an amazing value. yes the shigeru is incredible but you pay dearly for it (though i'll say that relative to the qualtiy you get, the value is still here, there's just a higher buy in).

i don't think you would really see a benefit from RX to Boston, i've never been convinced that they are better than even a standard Kawaii. I just do not see such a proud Japanese family with their incredible track record, making a finer instrument than the one they produce under their own name for another label. it just doesn't make sense, and as a pianist, i've never been overly impressed. they are fine pianos, but I do not believe as fine as a very good and prepped standard kawaii isntrumetn, let alone an RX which I think is the best balance of performance and quality relative to price point before you begin breaking into tier one hand made instrumetns.


I love Estonia pianos. I think they are some of the finest as well and probably the best value in the hand made pianos of the "European" tradition. Dr. Laul has moved the isntrument light years forward since he took the helm of Estonia. If it isn't too much of an upcharge it might be worth your while if you have  get into their larger isntrument. as fine as the 5 '6 model is (prolly the finest small grand on the market), i think it would only make sense if you for at least the 6'3 model or better yet their new semi concert grand.

if not you are probably best served waiting to upgrade and make the move later or find  the rare used Shigru. that would prob be my move were i in your situation.

[hfmadopter]

I am a Kawai RX2 owner interested in possible upgrade.  I have thought about more expensive brands such as shigeru or Steinway but they are just way too out of my budget.  Is there any benefit I can gain from changing Kawai RX to Boston or Estonia? 

Also, second question is for people who can be truly honest without bias.  Are hand made pianos that much better than machine made if proper regulation/voicing/tune up can be done on the machine made piano?

Thanks.

I think you need to establish what it is you are trying to improve upon over the RX. If it's sound then a larger piano is in order as you are most likely getting nearly as good as it gets in a 5'10" piano now. Action, finish, fit etc ?

[asuhayda]

Hey!

I recently just purchased a Boston GP-178 PE and I love it!  It is beautiful, the upper range is sparkly and the lower range is deep and rich.  The action is hea...vy out of the box. Which I happen to like, but that can always be lightened up.

To be perfectly honest, I tried many different brands of pianos and they were all really good.  However, I did not like the Estonia... I know that it's a popular "up and comer" so to speak. But, I felt the sound was too "echoey" for my taste.  Granted, I only tried one or two.

The Kawai RX's were surprisingly good.  I remember trying those pianos out back in the 90's and they were terrible.  That company has come a long way.  The new action was fantastic.. I felt like I was cheating I could trill so fast.  I find, however, that Kawais are hit or miss, some are amazing and some are terrible... don't know, maybe it's just me.

Anyway,  I chose the Boston because I got the best deal out of all of them.  Which might shock some people as it is inherently more expensive than the other brands.. however, Steinway dealers have been unusually motivated to sell lately (probably because of the economy).. So, it ended working out better for me than the Kawais and Yamahas I was looking at.

Plus,  I like the idea of being able to trade up 100% of the purchase price to a Steinway one day. Yes... I'm a Steinway person. 

Anyway,  Bostons are made at the Kawai factory and having played both of them, I would have to say that I like them both equally.  I wasn't a fan of Estonia, but I have a feeling I'm in the minority on that... so you'll have to judge for yourself.  Might depend on what kind of music you like to play.. Personally, I like a brighter piano.


One thing I will say, the quality all of the instruments seem to improve dramatically at the 5'10" mark.. if you have the means, I would recommend staying away from anything smaller than that.  Some professional techs agree with me on that as well.  Of course, room and money are a major factor with that.

If you've got a Kawai RX2 now, then you know a good piano when you hear one.  So, I'm sure you'll get a great instrument.

Also, have you considered Yamaha? The C3 is an amazing instrument.

Best of luck to you!

[richard black]

I would never describe moving from Kawai to Boston as an upgrade unless you're talking about a Kawai that has been kicked to hell and back. I've played loads of Bostons and never liked any of them, and I've had to do repairs to far too many that have not had many years of use. By contrast, I find Kawais on the whole rather nice - perhaps not the most characterful instruments but certainly very reliable.

Not well up on current Estonias, but my limited aquaintance suggests they are pretty decent. Yamaha C-series grands also fail to impress me as a breed (though the action on them is usually good), and the bass strings on all but the biggest Yamahas strike me as inexplicably poor - how can a single-string note sound that badly out of tune with itself?

[asuhayda]

I have to clarify something.. I didn't mean to suggest that going to a Boston is an upgrade from the Kawai RX2.  At best, it would be moving sideways.  I happened to like both the Boston GP178-PE and the Rx2 the same.  It came down to a better deal with the Boston.

However, I definitely don't think that Estonia is an upgrade either. 

So,  I'm not really sure where you can go from there.  The Kawai Rx2 is a pretty high quality instrument, and aside from going to a larger sized instrument like the Rx3 or the C3 (in my opinion).. I'm not sure your'e going to be able to do any better at that price point.  You're pretty much at the top of the list already.

If you were truly going to "upgrade", you'd probably have to start looking at the 5 star pianos like Steinways, Fazioli's, Bosendorfers, S. Kawai's..  Yamaha S-Series... etc

Hope that makes sense.

[amelialw]

i don't think you would really see a benefit from RX to Boston, i've never been convinced that they are better than even a standard Kawaii. I just do not see such a proud Japanese family with their incredible track record, making a finer instrument than the one they produce under their own name for another label. it just doesn't make sense, and as a pianist, i've never been overly impressed. they are fine pianos, but I do not believe as fine as a very good and prepped standard kawaii isntrumetn, let alone an RX which I think is the best balance of performance and quality relative to price point before you begin breaking into tier one hand made instrumetns.

in this case it's probably because you haven't tried one which has been well prepped or has been used for awhile. Boston's tend to be pretty muted when they are new and for the first year at least... I made that decision after getting to practice on one quite a bit. Boston's are good pianos, it just responds quite differently from a Kawai or Steinway. I used to own a Kawai 2G and it was a good instrument. Don't particularly like American steinway pianos; there's quite a bit difference between American and German Steinways