Yamaha U1 vs Kawai K-300 | Upright Piano Review & Comparison

When it comes to mid-range professional-level pianos, there are of course many solid options on the market in this modern era of upright piano building. But, if there’s one particular rivalry that happens to stand out above all others, it has to be the Yamaha U1 vs Kawai K-300.

Sure, these two pianos companies have numerous directly competitive pianos; the Yamaha GC1 vs Kawai GL10, Yamaha C2X vs Kawai GX2, Yamaha CFX vs Shigeru Kawai SK-EX etc. But the fact is, the U1 and K-300 are the two best-selling professional upright pianos in many parts of the world, and as such, get the most attention in the marketplace.

We reference these two pianos constantly in our videos and reviews, so along with the companion video, we’re going to do a comprehensive head-to-head breakdown for you here. If you’re shopping for an upright, it’s pretty much impossible to avoid these two beasts.

 

Yamaha U1 Upright Piano

Yamaha U1 History & Background

Let's start with the Yamaha U1. The U1 is a 48” piano from Japan and is probably the best-known upright piano in the entire world, and perhaps even in the history of the piano industry.

The U1 really led the way in terms of the Japanese takeover of the North American piano industry starting in the late '60s, which then really picked up significant momentum through the late 1970s and into the 1980s. There were simply no new pianos of the U1’s craftsmanship and musical quality available at such a low price previously.

Kawai followed closely behind, and within a few years these two Japanese manufacturers had achieved market dominance for upright pianos in North America by the 1980s, and this continues to this day.

The U1 specifically became very well-known because Yamaha had the foresight to keep the model name the same since the inception of the U1 almost 60 years ago.

Alternatively, Kawai has gone through more than a dozen different series of upright pianos with each new generation, changing the name each time. The U1 has of course featured many design improvements over the years but without ever changing the name.

 

Yamaha U1 Musical & Design Overview

Musically, the U1 can be described in a couple of fairly simple ways. For one, it produces a good, clear and loud tone once you really get the soundboard activated. Many people over the years have described the U1 as having a sharper tone, and this is the result of a high-tension scale design.

The strings are a little bit shorter, and interestingly, the soundboard is not tapered. As a result, when you really start to push the instrument, there is a tendency for the piano to distort when you get into the upper register.

On the other hand, the fact that it's not a tapered soundboard has traditionally meant that the tuning stability can be a little bit better if you are in a climate where the temperature is all over the map.

The tighter, shorter bass string also gives the U1 a punchy attack down in the lower register, with the trade-off being less warmth at lower volume levels.

Ultimately, the U1's reputation as a reliable, albeit bright, piano is as true today as it was back in the 1980s. Some of the newer U1s and U3s are being shipped with softer voicing from the factory level, and this has certainly lessened the impact of the attack.

 

Yamaha U1 Upright Piano Action - Materials, Construction & Feel

Moving onto the action, and we have a traditional wood action with maple hammers. In terms of the key dip, it’s pretty much down the middle.

The weighting on most U1s tends to be right down the middle as well, though U1s have a reputation among pianists for having a lighter touch, we think this perception is due to the fact that the U1 gets very loud very fast, which creates the illusion of a light touch.

Whether this is a good thing or bad thing depends on your playing style, but for people who are into an Elton John or Billy Joel style of playing, you’re likely to really enjoy this action.

A big difference between the U1 and K-300 aside from the actions materials themselves which we’ll get into down below when discussing the K-300 is the key length. Yamaha has maintained a fairly typical length of key stick on their uprights that has been virtually unchanged since the 1970s.

The K-300 alternatively has a longer key stick, which offers the player greater control, especially at lower dynamic levels.

For somebody who's just starting out, this is probably not going to be a very big deal.

For somebody who is either a more advanced player, or somebody who's going back and forth between a teacher's grand piano and a practice piano, those longer key sticks on the K-300 may be something that is an important consideration.

 

Kawai K-300 Upright Piano

Kawai K-300 Series Information and Background

While there are many differences between the K-300 and the U1, there are a few obvious similarities too. For one, the Kawai K300 is also manufactured in Japan and is also 48” in height, both pianos have a soft fall fallboard and both pianos have very solid back posts.

The K-300 has developed just like the current U1 has where it’s essentially been evolving since the 1960s. Generally speaking, Kawai as a company tends to innovate their products very frequently, sometimes with mixed results, but since about the early 2000s, they’ve been cranking out a consistently stellar product.

Their most recent K-series update, which took their K3 (MMR magazine’s Acoustic Piano of the Year in 4 consecutive years) and upgraded it to the new K-300, the K5 to the new K500 and so on, incorporated many of the same design innovations that they first introduced with their GX professional quality grand pianos.

Besides the action, the K3 was actually quite similar to the Yamaha U1. There may have been some tonal differences, but from a general design standpoint, they weren't dramatically different beasts. The K-300, on the other hand, has really been quite a departure from what you would get in a Yamaha U1.

 

Kawai K-300 Sound & Design Overview

A key thing that differentiates the K-300 from the U1 is the scale design and string length. Even though both pianos are the same height, the K-300 actually has a lower tension scale and bass string which is several centimetres longer than what you get on the U1.

The result is more warmth and roundness in the bass register on the K-300, but this is true across the entire range of the instrument.

The second meaningful difference is the solid spruce soundboard and the fact that the K-300 has a tapered soundboard. Tapering allows the soundboard to become active with less energy by precisely thinning out the edges of the soundboard.

This means that if you had the same level of dynamic energy going into the soundboard, a tapered soundboard will activate more surface area than a non-tapered soundboard.

 

Kawai’s Exclusive Millennium III Upright Action

The biggest difference between Kawai and Yamaha that everybody really used to focus on is the wood versus plastic debate with regard to action parts.

This debate is essentially antiquated at this point because both pianos have good actions, but there’s no longer any dispute regarding some of the inherent advantages of abs-carbon composite actions, especially with regard to its superiority over wood when it comes to maintenance and long-term durability.

The biggest thing from a musical standpoint with the K-300's action is that it's geared to take advantage of the tapered soundboard. The geometry paired with the extended key stick length gives the player more control in the lower dynamic ranges.

On the U1, it's easier to achieve that forte and fortissimo with less effort. Depending on the style of music you're playing, you will probably have a preference for one style versus the other. The key surfaces are fairly similar on both pianos.

Other action-related notes have to do with the hammers; the K-300 is equipped with double felted hammers with a mahogany core (underfelted), which is considered a superior hammer material to maple due to its greater strength and density. For context, the premium YUS series of uprights have mahogany hammers.

 

Yamaha U1 vs Kawai K-300 - Other Differences

There are a few other, minor, let's say non-musical differences between the Yamaha U1 vs Kawai K-300. One of them is that the Kawai K300 is outfitted with a larger music desk that’s more accommodating to sheet music, especially four-fold and five-fold pieces.

Both pianos have a 10-year factory warranty, but while the U1 warranty is applicable to the original purchaser only, the K-300’s warranty is transferable to future owners within the warranty period. If resale is a consideration, this is a pretty critical difference.

The U1 is available in what Yamaha calls their TransAcoustic series, while the K-300 is available in an Aures version. Both of these additions have a digital piano component built in that gives you the option of playing the piano with headphones plugged in.

Both pianos have really high-quality brass casters and brass pedals.

  

Final Thoughts

We hope that this has helped to quickly clarify some of the most critical differences between these two very popular models.

Unfortunately, it can be tough to check them out side by side in the same showroom since Yamaha and Kawai are almost always sold through different dealer networks. But if you have an opportunity to try one and shoot across town to try the other, you should definitely do so.

There’s a very good reason these are the two dominant upright pianos of our day, and that’s highly unlikely to change anytime soon.

The post Yamaha U1 vs Kawai K-300 | Upright Piano Review & Comparison first appeared on Merriam Pianos

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Kawai K-800 Upright Piano Review & Demo - Kawai K Series

 

Introduction

The Kawai K800 Upright Grand Piano is one of the few “true” upright grands to come out of Asia.  Built in Japan entirely by Kawai, the K800 has full sostenuto, premium hand-selected spruce soundboards, premium double-felted mahogany hammers, oversized music desk, and grand-like key sticks for a super high level of accuracy and speed.

Kawai K-800 Upright Piano Review Video Transcription

Thanks for being here. In this article, we're going to be looking at Kawai's 53-inch K-800, the best professional upright piano that Kawai is building, and one of the very best upright pianos in its class, and certainly at the very top of what's currently coming out of Japan. Its elegant form and exceptional tone will fulfill the needs of any professional teaching studio or intimate performance setting. The height-adjustable bench on all K Series models is ideal for teaching studios with many students and for families with more than one player. We'll be covering the action parts and the piano's tone, as well as looking at some really unique features about that instrument that I find to be of extraordinarily high value.

Background:

The K800 is a 53-inch upright piano, which actually makes it one of the larger upright pianos available on the market regardless of what price point you're looking at, and regardless of country of origin as the typical maximum size uprights from most manufacturer's are often 52 inches. The K-800 sits at the top of Kawai's K-series of professional upright pianos, and it starts right at the K-200, goes through the K-300, K-400, K-500, and finally the K800 (with a K-600 and K-700 available in Europe and Asia but not North America.) We often try to have one on our showroom floor, but it's made in such limited quantities that it can be difficult to showcase it year-round.

By every definition of the word, this qualifies to be called an upright grand piano. Not only is it well over 600 pounds, which means it's heavier than quite a few of the baby grands that are on the market, but the string length, particularly in the bass, puts it in a longer bass string category than most baby grand pianos. It's actually closer to a mid-5-foot grand in terms of the clarity that you get out of the bass. There's also a grand piano-style music desk, which is great for composers who still prefer to work with pencil and manuscript paper as opposed to a laptop when composing.

The soundboard surface area is also larger than the vast majority of 5-foot class grand pianos. As a result of these various factors, it does put the price point well above what you would typically be thinking about for a Japanese upright piano. This gets right up into the mid-range German upright price point. If we're in Canadian dollars, we're talking about a price that exceeds the $20,000. Keep on reading to find out why you should consider this piano if your budget is around $20,000 CAD for an upright piano.

Piano Tone:

The K-800 has a thick, powerful tone. A key reason why has to do with the presence of duplex scale. On a grand piano, when you create a duplex scale, you actually put another fulcrum on the other side of the bridge, so there's this extra speaking length which is kind of just free to resonate sympathetically when the instrument is being played. This thickens the tone and creates all of these subtle harmonics that add to the color of the treble. Duplex scale is not common in upright pianos. The K-500 has it in the top section, while the K-800 has in the top two ranges of the keys on both the front of the string length, as well as on the back of the string length. The addition of duplex scale here in the K-800 results in all kind of extra color coming off of the treble range.

The K-800 also has full agraffes, which ensures greater uniformity of string alignment and smoother tuning over a long period of time, also not overly common among uprights The overall thickness and projection of the tone reminds me of the Kawai GX grands, such as a GX-1 or a GX-2. If you're looking for a nice upright because you don't have space for a grand, getting some of the harmonic qualities that normally grands have, in the form of an upright is a pretty strong selling feature. It's worth mentioning.

Another tone related feature we should highlight is the presence of Royal George Hammer felt. What is Royal George felt? Royal George are a third-party company that supplies high-end felt for hammer manufacturers. Kawai has decided to include this special felt in the K-800 as an extra premium feature. I can't profess to be able to hear the difference between the Royal George felt and the premium Kawai felt that they put on the rest of the K-series piano, but I imagine this might show up more in how well the hammer could be voiced, or quite possibly, the overall longevity of the hammer. The K-800 also features mahogany core hammers, and with better felt, we know that that felt doesn't distort even when you really punch it.

Due to the large tapered, solid spruce soundboard surface area, there is a huge amount of volume coming off of this piano. Behind the grand style, hard finish music rack are tone holes, which allows some tone to escape through the front.  There is also 6 back posts and 12 ribs attached to the soundboard, giving a strong responsive sound to the whole piano.

Going past the overall tonal power, there's also a level of control you get when you're playing quietly, and even without the quiet pedal that is very good. Most large upright pianos are notorious for being a little more difficult to control in the really quiet dynamic ranges, much more so than what you have on a grand piano. This is one of the reasons why traditionally, teachers and performers generally have preferred to be in front of a grand when they get to a high level of playing because the level of control doesn't really seem to get sacrificed as you get further down into the dynamic range as you're pianissimo or you're triple pianissimo. Kawai has clearly regulated and set the geometry of the action up so that everything is speaking regardless of what dynamic range you're playing in, so you're not having to do a lot of compensating with the soft pedal for more control in the lower ranges.

From a tonal character standpoint, the K-800 is super different from a German piano. This is ultimately a good thing because it gives people a clear choice in the kind of sound they're looking for. What are these differences? For close to the same price as the K-800 you can get into a 47 or 48" in German piano, most of which are going to be generating a very clear bell tone, but possibly less colorful overall. That may make a German upright more appealing to some styles of playing, whereas the colorful sound of the K-800 might appeal to those playing romantic classical music or possibly jazz.

Overall. I would describe the K-800's tone as colorful, with a rich lush palette of overtones. It really is quite different than what you would get if you were sitting behind say a Bechstein or a Steingraeber with laser-like clarity on every single note. Ultimately, whether you prefer the tone of the K-800 or a German upright is going to be pretty subjective.

Piano Action:

Like the rest of the K-Series uprights and many Kawai pianos, the K-800 features the Kawai Millennium III upright action. This action uses a combination of natural materials as well as abs-carbon fiber-reinforced synthetic materials. The exclusive NEOTEX key surface resists cracking and fading over the years of use and is used for both the sharps and the naturals for a consistent feel across the entire keyboard.

This is a very fast action. I wouldn't describe it as a light action, but it's super-fluid, quite effortless to play. We know that due to the presence of abs-carbon composites definitely there are some arguments to be made that this will be a lower maintenance action than some of the all-wood actions out there. I would say this will be more pronounced if you're in a climate where there are frequent variations in the humidity levels. You'd notice it less if you were in a climate with more stable humidity levels, but there's still an argument for greater longevity with an action built with composite materials.

Another cool thing we need to mention, and this is directly related to the action, would be that the K-800 has the full sostenuto. Sostenuto is, just like the full-duplex scale we mentioned earlier, is another feature usually found exclusively on grand pianos. The true sostenuto pedal, for those who don't know what that is, is essentially a selective sustain pedal. If I want a B flat to sustain, but only the B flat to sustain, I'd press the B flat, and then press the middle pedal. The B flat will sustain, but nothing around it will. regardless of what other notes you play. Whereas if I was using the normal sustain pedal, everything I play would sustain.

This is not common to find this on a Kawai upright. There are other uprights out there with sostenuto, and obviously, most high-end models can be special ordered with a sostenuto, but it's really nice to have this as kind of a standard feature, at least here in Canada. The middle pedal, as some viewers might know, on an upright is usually the mute pedal. Since the middle pedal here is a sostenuto, there's a lever underneath the left side that acts as the mute pedal, so you're not sacrificing that function with the addition of a sostenuto.

Other Observations:

From a construction standpoint, the K-800 is an absolute tank. The thickness and the quantity of the back posts on the instrument makes the case that K-800 could almost fall into a Shigeru Kawai category in terms of the quality of the build and in terms of the attention that this instrument receives. The steel-reinforced keybed and keyslip are also critical in supporting the long term stability of this piano. It really is in a class of its own in terms of the Kawai K-Series lineup.

Conclusions:

So there you have it. The K-800 sits at the top of Kawai's upright lineup, and an absolutely beautiful instrument to play. The K-800 serves as a very interesting alternative to the German instruments that have this similar price point, and it gives an option for a more colorful sound. If you're in the $20,000 price range, I would say even if you're thinking about a baby grand for musical reasons and not aesthetic reasons, this would also be a really interesting piano to consider.

The post Kawai K-800 Upright Piano Review & Demo - Kawai K Series - Tips, Questions to Ask, and What to Look For first appeared on Merriam Pianos

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