Korg E1 Air Digital Piano - Matte Black

The Korg E1 Air is an 88-note digital piano in a matte black cabinet. It is built around the RH3 weighted action and a speaker system running 40 watts a side, with the power supply and the three-pedal stand both integrated. Aimed at committed home players, it offers the response of a full-size instrument without the floor space or the tuning visits.

Five piano voices, modelled in detail

Italian concert grand heads the list, joined by Classic, Jazz, Hall and Ballad variants. Each recreates damper resonance, the sympathetic string vibration that appears as soon as the sustain pedal drops. Key-off simulation covers the other end of a note, reproducing what you hear as the fingers lift. Thirty sounds in three banks.

The RH3 keyboard

Weighting on the RH3 is graded, heavier at the bass end and progressively lighter towards the treble, exactly as an acoustic behaves. Fast repetition is handled without the action feeling like it is catching up, and quiet dynamics register properly rather than dropping out. Five sensitivity settings are offered: light, normal, heavy, stable and fixed. Pick one and forget it.

A cabinet that does acoustic work

More than a styling exercise, the enclosure shapes what you hear. Rigid, tightly sealed construction keeps resonance under control and sharpens definition across the frequency range. Because the drivers fire forward from the front of the unit, the piano can sit flat against a wall without the sound turning muffled. No external power brick either. The supply is built in, and at 47 kg on its stand the instrument stays exactly where you put it.

Output and private listening

Two 12 cm drivers with 40 watts apiece give the E1 Air genuine headroom, tuned for sparkling highs, warm lows and an even middle. Brilliance, reverb and chorus each run to three levels if you want to reshape the tone. Plug in headphones and the Stereo Sound Optimizer opens the image out, so a long stretch at the instrument never feels claustrophobic. Two sockets, which helps during lessons.

Pedals and everyday safety

Damper, soft and sostenuto come fitted to the stand, the full set found under an acoustic. Sustain can be feathered rather than switched, because the first two both accept half positions. Korg has also revised where the assembly sits. The reach feels more natural. Usefully, the lid over the keys closes gently from a set angle, which is reassuring in a house with small children.

Practice tools and connections

Fifty songs live inside. Forty are piano pieces and ten demonstrate the voices, with each hand of a piece playable on its own so you can take a part yourself. Recording covers two parts and roughly 14,000 notes, while the metronome offers tempo, time signature, accent, sound and level. Round the back sit line in and line out jacks, a USB type-B port, two headphone connectors, and sockets for the pedal and speaker units, plus Bluetooth A2DP for streaming from a phone.

See it in action

Specifications

Specifications from Korg. Appearance and specifications are subject to change without notice.