Steinway vs Shigeru Kawai
Shigeru Kawai is Kawai’s hand-built flagship, and it is one of the few pianos designed specifically to take on Steinway at the top of the market.
The pianos
A Shigeru Kawai is built in small numbers by Kawai’s most experienced makers, using the best materials, and each is finished and checked by a master technician. It is a world away from an ordinary factory Kawai. Steinway is the long-established benchmark, hand-built in New York or Hamburg.
Tone and the blind-test point
Shigeru Kawai has earned a strong reputation, warm and refined, and in blind tests among pianists it often holds its own against, and sometimes ahead of, more famous names. Steinway has the richer heritage and the bigger resale value. On sound alone, the gap is far smaller than the price gap.
Price
A new Shigeru Kawai costs less than a new Steinway of the same size, sometimes considerably less, which is a large part of its appeal to serious players who care more about the piano than the badge.