Kawai K-800 vs Boston UP-132 | Upright Piano Review & Comparison | Boston Built By Kawai

 

When it comes to Japanese upright pianos, there’s no question that the Kawai K-300 and Yamaha U1 absolutely dominate the conversation. That said, Boston has a very nice lineup of Japanese-built pianos as well, and Kawai has other great options available as well beyond the vaunted K-Series.

In today's article and companion video, we’ll be comparing and contrasting two of the top Japanese-made uprights available today with the Kawai K-800 vs Boston UP-132 professional upright pianos. These are both full-size, 52” upright pianos, and it's an especially interesting comparison because both pianos are actually made by Kawai in the same factory.

Their designs however are quite different, with the Boston UP132 having been designed by Steinway & Sons, while the K-800 is a Kawai product through and through. Kawai also implements a number of special features into the K-800 as their flagship upright.

We’re going to cover exactly how these two pianos compare musically as well as the critical design differences, and what that means for the pianist at the end of the day. It’s not every day we have two of these pianos side-by-side in one of our showrooms so we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity.

 

Kawai K-800 vs Boston UP-132 - Background

The Kawai K-800 and the Boston UP132 are the largest examples of upright pianos from both of these respective brands. As a result of being built by the same company in the same factory and even on the same production line in Japan, there is a ton of mixed heritage between these two acoustic pianos.

Steinway & Sons have designed the entire Boston series, so if you come across the sentiment that a Boston is really just a Kawai with a different logo, you can immediately discard that claim as false. While there are certainly a lot of shared components, and complete sharing of the labor force, these are distinct pianos from one another.

On the other hand, if you hear the common claim that Boston’s are built in an entirely different part of the factory by different employees, this too can immediately be dismissed as false. The Kawai K-800 upright piano is technically a 53” piano, while the Boston UP132 is 52” in height, but they are both approximately the same height and positioned against one another in the market in terms of price.

 

Commonalities

Starting with what's in common between these two pianos, both use mahogany core double felted hammers (Royal George hammer felt on the K-800, unspecified on the UP132), and have duplex scales, which is somewhat unusual for an upright piano. Both pianos feature tapered solid spruce soundboards.

They both use the same gauge treble wire, and there is not a great deal of difference in the scale tension at the upper end of the range, though there does appear to be some difference in scale tension at the bottom.

Both pianos have soft fall fallboards and heavy-duty casters and ship with a height-adjustable bench.

 

Key Differences

Moving over to the differences and these are much more numerous. For one, we’re looking at very different back post construction for these two instruments, and this can have a big effect on the sense of overall cabinet resonance.

The bridging system is very different with the K-800 having an enlarged section of the treble bridge as it transitions into the bass bridge which is designed like this to increase resonance in this section of the piano. The K-800 also has a full complement of agraffes which ensures ideal string spacing and is generally reserved solely for high-end uprights.

Perhaps the biggest difference is with regard to touch. The K-800 uses extended-length key sticks, whereas the Boston uses a standard upright key stick length. This results in a significant difference in the sense of weight and keybed depth between these two pianos. The K-800 feels like you're playing a grand piano with a wider dynamic range at your disposal due to an increased level of control.

There are pros and cons of extending the keys when you do this on an upright piano, especially with a hammer shank. The increased control results in a slightly degraded repetition speed, and we have noticed that the K-800 has a slightly slower repetition speed than that of the Boston UP132. So really, the question here comes down to whether you want to prioritize control and a greater dynamic range or speed.

Both pianos come standard with soft, muffler and damper pedals, however, the K-800 is available with an optional true sostenuto pedal in place of the muffler pedal by special order. The K-800 incorporates a steel-reinforced keyslip which can aid in minimizing the odds of sticky keys from the piano getting bumped.

In terms of aesthetic differences, the K-800 comes with a New England grand-style hard finish music rack, while the UP132 has a more conventionally sized music desk.

One other key difference for some - the Kawai warranty is transferable to future owners within the warranty period, while the Boston warranty is not. If resale value matters to you, keep this important fact in mind.

Let’s move on to a discussion of sound.

 

Upright Piano Sound

The tone is quite different between these two pianos, and the differences are similar to the differences between the Kawai GX-2 and Boston GP-178.

Ironically, the GX-2 was actually reminiscent of a New York Steinway-esque tone, with a little more mid-range power and warmth. Over on the Boston GP-178, the tone is brighter with some higher overtones.

This general description is also apt for the K-800 vs UP132 comparison. Let’s move through the ranges one by one.

 

Bass Register

The bass register really opens up on the K-800 at a low B or C, and you’ll notice some great resonance down here.

The bass is considerably bigger on the K-800, but the UP132 has a nice bass register of its own that happens to be a little bit warmer.

 

Tenor Register

Getting into the lower tenor range, the UP132 has certain localized areas where you can really hear the cabinet activate, and then other points where the cabinet is not really resonating at all.

The K-800 is pretty consistently resonant across this range.

 

Treble Register

As we move into the treble section, the differences between these two pianos start to fade away. In the top two octaves especially,

The overall character is very similar, and this makes sense because we know that there's no difference in string gauge, hammers, and duplex scale.

 

Overall Thoughts on the Sound Differences

The biggest differences between these two pianos are in the mid-sections. There is a brighter sound on the UP132, though at the same time it’s very nicely blended.

The K-800 takes on more of a New York Steinway tone with lots of mid-range partials, and the sound comes at the player in quite a direct way. Generally speaking, there are more guts and power out of everything on the K-800, and this is due in some parts to the extended key lengths.

 

Piano Action

Beyond the difference in the keystick lengths, there’s a pretty considerable difference in terms of the action designs themselves. The UP132 uses a Steinway-designed maple action.

The K-800 alternatively uses the Millennium III Upright Action with ABS-Carbon fiber composites like all Kawai K Series uprights. Kawai uses this same action concept in their handmade Shigeru Kawai grand pianos, and it’s known for its excellent durability and resistance to changes in humidity and temperature.

Ultimately, both actions are well-built and reliable, though the use of ABS composites in the K-800 is certainly enticing to certain people due to the superior strength and durability of ABS to wood.

As we said earlier, however, the difference from a playing experience is that the K-800 offers a greater degree of control and wider dynamic palette, while the UP132 offers a slightly faster repetition speed.

Both pianos have their own versions of synthetic ebony and ivory key surfaces with Kawai referring to theirs as Neotex.

 

Closing Thoughts

Thanks so much for checking out this comparison of the Kawai K-800 vs Boston UP-132. Both of these big uprights would be a great alternative to a baby grand piano and even work very nicely in an intimate performance setting.

The post Kawai K-800 vs Boston UP-132 | Upright Piano Review & Comparison | Boston Built By Kawai 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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