Kawai ES520 review

Full review

Kawai's ES520 sits just below the flagship ES920 and is the pick here if sound matters most. The headline is the 40 W amplifier, double or triple what the other portables offer. That makes a clear difference in a living room with soft furnishings, at a small gig, or in a church hall. Bass notes have weight and the piano sounds less boxed in.

The main piano voice is sampled from the Shigeru Kawai SK-EX, a hand-built concert grand, alongside Kawai's own EX and K-60. It is a mellow, singing tone that some players prefer to the brighter Yamaha and Casio sounds. Polyphony is 192 notes, which is enough for most music.

The Responsive Hammer Compact II action has three sensors per key and a pleasing, fairly heavy weighting. It lacks the escapement notch found on the Roland and some key thump is audible when playing through headphones, which may matter if someone is trying to sleep in the same room.

Bluetooth covers both MIDI and audio with aptX for better streaming quality. Like every portable here, it comes with a basic pedal; Kawai's matching designer stand and triple pedal unit turn it into a home instrument. It launched in 2021, so look for good deals, but it remains a current Kawai model.