Externally increasing headphone volume for Kawai ES-100 digital piano, and connecting speakers

[Cifer]

Hello everyone,

I used to play on acoustic pianos all my life, but the next year I will have to play on a digital piano. I have a Kawai ES-100 I purchased years ago, and it's serviceable enough that I don't want invest time into looking for an upgrade.

I do, however, an issue with it related purely to sound, which is why I am posting here.

The piano is infamously quiet compared to most similar pianos even at maximum volume, and I feel that this leads to the dynamics being very weak. It's hard to hear the difference between loud and quiet notes if the base volume is low. I want to solve this issue for both external sound and headphone usage.

Here is a link to the manual:
https://www.kawai-global.com/data/manuals/KPSZ-0653_ES100_EN_R100.pdf

1. How do I properly connect a pair of Kali Lp-6 2nd Wave to this piano? It has pretty basic output channels so I'm not sure if there is any specific setup I would need for optimal sound quality.

2. The headphones I am using are the Sennheiser HD 560S. Would using a stronger headphone amp to get louder sound from the piano be a viable solution? Or are there other devices I could use to simply increase the volume of the headphones? Stage pianos should provide plenty of power for an HD 560s so I think an amp would probably be overkill and not what I need, but I'm really uncertain. The sound quality is fine so I really think I would only need to boost the volume by a significant amount.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Cifer]

Sadly I can't edit this, but I've realized one thing I didn't explicitly mention:

As far as I understand, the piano has no line out usable for a pair of external speakers or a headphone amp. It has the headphone jack, and a MIDI output at the back. Is there a way to somehow use the MIDI outputs with an amp or speakers, or would that option not exist? The only other way would be using the headphone jack, which I fear would make the sound worse.

Short summary of my questions again:
1. How can I best connect external speakers?
2. How do I increase the headphone volume when the instrument is already set to max volume? Any other option but an amp?
3. If an amp is there only solution, how would I best connect it?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Matthias McCready]

Midi is a digital protocol the transimits notes and velocity, it is not audio; however I think the best sound would come from utilizing it.

If you have a computer handy, I would recommend investing in an interface and the Spectrosonics Keyscape Software.

Keyscape sounds just phenomenal, and is far better than the samples present in most keyboards (there is no replacement for a good sounding source).

Your keyboard would act essentially as just a midi controller. Note as your keyboard is older you would either need a Midi-USB dongle or an audio interface that has midi I/O. Your audio interface would act drive the headphones/studio monitors.

 

[Cifer]

Thanks for the reply. That is also an option I am currently exploring. However, I am more leaning towards the Pianoteq software since that is what a lot of the piano community uses, and because it works extremely well with laptops compared to many other products. Is there anything specific that makes Spectrosonics Keyscape special/better?

I know that simply using the keyboard as a MIDI controller would probably be better, but I fear that the lack of a proper sound card in laptops would result in an unsatisfactory sound. I would also prefer not to spend too much time optimizing the software, but maybe that won't be an issue since I don't want to record or mix anything. Either way, considering the fact that there is no good way to connect this specific piano directly to speakers or a headphone amp, it will probably be the better solution.

Is there a specific cable (you said dongle, but it would have to be a cable, wouldn't it?) you would recommend? I know it will mostly be all the same, but I don't want to end up something extremely bad. It would need to be available ideally on Amazon.de.

 

[tomtoo]

Ok,just,looked you have two headphone outs. Makes thinks easy.

To connect the Kalis you need only something like this

the sssnake YPR2030

the sssnake YPR 2030 Y-Audiokabel 6,3mm Stereo-Klinke -> 2x Cinch, 3m

www.thomann.de

If you like more umpff on the heaphone you need a amp.
Something like this should be ok.

LD Systems HPA 4 4 Channels Headphone Amplifier : Amazon.de: Electronics & Photo

LD Systems HPA 4 4 Channels Headphone Amplifier : Amazon.de: Electronics & Photo

www.amazon.de

Amps like this are not great, but usually they have more ummpf than the build in. And you stil can use more than one headphone .I mean not such a high investment for test.
If this still not enough, you need a better amp.

On the other hand i dont know your setup and a small mixer can be very handy.

 

[Cifer]

Ok,just,looked you have two headphone outs. Makes thinks easy.

To connect the Kalis you need only something like this

the sssnake YPR2030

the sssnake YPR 2030 Y-Audiokabel 6,3mm Stereo-Klinke -> 2x Cinch, 3m

www.thomann.de

If you like more umpff on the heaphone you need a amp.
Something like this should be ok.

LD Systems HPA 4 4 Channels Headphone Amplifier : Amazon.de: Electronics & Photo

LD Systems HPA 4 4 Channels Headphone Amplifier : Amazon.de: Electronics & Photo

www.amazon.de

Amps like this are not great, but usually they have more ummpf than the build in. And you stil can use more than one headphone .I mean not such a high investment for test.
If this still not enough, you need a better amp.

On the other hand i dont know your setup and a small mixer can be very handy.

Thank you!

Does connecting through the headphone jacks - and in this case double amping - not severely impact the sound quality? As far as I remember it's normally recommended against (I think on this forum too, but I might be misremembering).

I have an Atom amp which should be plenty, but don't have the cables/adapters at hand to connect everything properly. I was curious if it's even a good idea, sound-wise.
Same issue with the Kali - I'm not sure if trying to connect them through the headphone jack is even a good idea, or if I should use the MIDI controller solution and just run everything through my PC.

 

[tomtoo]

Thank you!

Does connecting through the headphone jacks - and in this case double amping - not severely impact the sound quality? As far as I remember it's normally recommended against (I think on this forum too, but I might be misremembering).

I have an Atom amp which should be plenty, but don't have the cables/adapters at hand to connect everything properly. I was curious if it's even a good idea, sound-wise.
Same issue with the Kali - I'm not sure if trying to connect them through the headphone jack is even a good idea, or if I should use the MIDI controller solution and just run everything through my PC.

Connecting headphone jack to rca is not the optimum, but usually absolutly no problem.
The midi controller solution needs a vst host(daw) and vst instruments, midi interface. Dont know which way you like to go, very different in know how needs. But sure you could record midi, play different instruments and so on. Much more possibilitys but also more to learn. Depends what direction you like to go. More just play your instrument, or more a littel home studio like.

If you just like to play, just connect over the headphone outs. RCA outs on the instrument could be a littel better, but not worlds. And the cable is cheap. So if you not happy, nothing lost. Cables like this often needet. If its ok try the atom, with the hp outs. Same cable i think. So whats to loose for you? A cable?
I mean its not a pro instrument with symmetrical outputs, pesty groundloops can happen, but they not have to.

 

[Matthias McCready]

Thanks for the reply. That is also an option I am currently exploring. However, I am more leaning towards the Pianoteq software since that is what a lot of the piano community uses, and because it works extremely well with laptops compared to many other products. Is there anything specific that makes Spectrosonics Keyscape special/better?

Either of those pieces of software will sound better than the samples in your Kawia.

As far as audio output, you would be relying on an audio interface to the monitors.

---

For a simple midi interface, something like a Roland UM-ONE could fit your needs.

----

As Tomtoo mentioned a cable would be the cheapest way to get you up an running.

Honestly coming out of a headphone output usually sounds fine enough, sometimes there is a higher noise floor. IMO the piano sample quality and the player make a much bigger difference in sound quality.

 

[Cifer]

Thanks everyone. I think I'll try the MIDI route since - unless there really are noticeable issues running on a laptop (no sound card, maybe delay because of the processor, etc.) - it is both better and simpler. I always knew it would be ideal, but potential setup and hardware issues kept me hesitating. If the sound quality is really not up to my standards I can always get an audio interface or whatever is needed to fix the sound. Considering I just want decent quality for a simple piano sound and more volume I will probably be OK with the result either way.

I've considered the UM-ONE among other known brands, but ended up getting this for testing purposes:
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Converte...e=54-12082&replacementKeywords=to+usb&sr=8-11
since it seemed to be of ok quality.
I'll gladly pay 50 euros for an UM-ONE or a similar product if it will be better in a way which matters for my use case. Would there be any reason to do so if the one I ordered is stable? Would it matter for the delay, or is delay essentially just an issue with the laptop hardware and software unless I use a really bad cable?

And one more question about the ASIO driver: I will be using an older laptop with Realtek HD Audio a lot of the time. Which driver should I use for that? I've read conflicting opinions about this matter: some say one should use WASAPI unless the software you want to use requires an ASIO, others say to use the Realtek driver floating around the internet, and only use ASIO4ALL if nothing else works.
What can/should I use with Pianoteq on a laptop with Realtek HD Audio?

Thank you!