Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Kawai CN-33 Arrived !

Both.
With the years of maturity you learn that very few things in life are simplistically either binary black or white and good or evil.

Getting yourself informed of facts, checking facts and using your head to think can save you lots of problems.

If you dig a little you will see that I am a big fan of thomann and of Kawai -- but not necessarily of buying a Kawai from thomann from a foreign country. To understand that without being willing to take me at my word you will need to do some work yourself and analyze facts that are shared freely on this forum.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each of the brands discussed here and to each of the retail channels.

For most of the mature and constructive posters here, it is not about some Football Fan style contest to cheer one's own personal brand or to misuse the board to sell, but it is about sharing information objectively -- especially information that the manufacturers and retailers don't do a great job of sharing.

As far as being confused, I am afraid I cannot help you with your English comprehension.

For a start, you could actually take a polite and respectful approach, read and think about what people have written -- not what you imagine they have written -- not read your own biases into things and not let yourself get confused by all the nasty shouting on the forum and whispering in personal messages in German from certain biased trouble makers on this board.

After you receive your digital piano and start to learn a little about playing and perhaps get your kid excited, perhaps you might decide to stick around here and instead of just taking also give back.

Sounds like a copious and polite insult to me, from a know-it-all...

You do not come across as the type of poster you advise me to be.
Anyway, THANK YOU, for even having an interest in my question.
I am a newbie to Kawai and DP's.
I am an OLD BIRD to internet forums, since 20 years.

Therefore there is no mistaking your tone.

BTW, some of us do not have all the time in the world, to troll through all the threads.
We sent a quick question, even a FAQ, and hope some kind soul will post back a quick answer.
To advise a new guy to "search" and read through 198Gb of posts...is just so clever.



With such polite people like you, people like me will be SO HAPPY to stick around. In case you don't get it, YOU and YOUR posts are pushing me away from this "initially friendly" forum.
NO offense to the others who send me their straight talk, non condescending comments.

hello, apparently this became the official cn33 thread

in this thread i introduce myself and my needs.

https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubb...yself%20and%20in%20sear.html#Post1658802

i must confess that i really would like the Roland Hpi-7f which sports the latest roland technology together with the i-guess-is-fun-maybe-is-also-useful-and-i-really-want-it digiscore or an hp307, but going through this thread i am more and more convinced to get the cn33

i hope is the right choice (my wallet is definetly sure though)

My opinion is that the CN33 is better value than the HP307 and also maybe as good. Why don't you try them both out for yourself and see. The 7F is also nice, and a stage piano whereas the CN33 is a console home style piano. They have been reviewed on here and compared and it's close, but also subjective, and it depends on what your needs are.

thanks buddha, are comments/opinions like yours that i'm in search for.

i have been spending the last two weeks going through the forum in search of reviews and opinions and that's why i also came to the conclusion that the cn33 may be a better choice budget/performance wise.

unfortunatly i don't think to have the skills to tell the difference between the various DPs sound or touch performance, that's why i'm mostly relying on cold specs and opinions of expert people.

i did my homework though and i've been lucky enough to have some people playing the pianos for me, but unfortunatly not in the same shops so i can't say it was a direct comparison. as for now i've "reviewed" roland's hp/hpi line and a casio px830.

i was able to appreciate the difference in the decay of a note, but probably because (after all this time spent on the forum) i was looking for it, but i can't really tell if i would notice it without knowing it. the same goes for sound: i had talented people (normal customers of the shop not a vendor)playing for me and i probably prefer the rolands over the casio, but again i can't tell if it was because of what i was expecting, and i'm still not sure which roland i do prefer. even worse for touch and action: i've tickled the keyboards and to my memory they all are better than the acoustics i used to play (but that was 25 years ago and my memory could be really wrong !!!).

so my (i dare to say obvious) conclusion is if i'm not able to tell the difference (or at least not so disctintly) why invest all that money on it? (the geek part of me is still watering over the hpi-7f though) and the cn33 at 1.250 euros (roughly 1.800 usd) it seems to be the wisest choice.

but, suddenly, i came across the DPBSD and the comments over the cn33 don't seem to be all that positive. so i'm starting to wonder if i will regret it when and IF my skills will grow.

PS i don't wan't a stage piano (better, my wife imposed me that it has to be aesthetically pleasing) and i'm going to test (with the above mentioned self limitations) the cn33 as soon as the shop receives it.

I had the same problem just before purchasing the CN33 and my anguish was reflected in my comments on the DPBSD thread about the CN33.

IMHO the DPBSD provides valuable and useful information about the technical implementation of a DP. However none of them are perfect. Some are just better or worse than others of course.

Then there's price, not reflected in the DPBSD.

Then there's 'musicality' and responsiveness of the keyboard touch, also not reflected in the DPBSD.

Then, just to be clear (since it comes across the other way I think) that although the Roland SN sound may be the best non-sampled implementation around, not everyone likes it.

Also read the comments on the CN33 thread on the satisfied users. There's a couple of FP7F threads too with equally satisfied users.

Then decide on either the CN33 or Roland FP7F for yourself, but only after trying them.

little update: the cn33 is on is way home

it finally arrived at the shop and i've played a little with it.

compared to roland's SN line (i don't know why but i never considered yamahas (probably for what they've done to valentino rossi or simply because i feel them to be overpriced)) there are pros and cons (i was also interested on a casio AP620, roughly the same price of the cn33 (online though) but the shop had a privia px830 which the cn33 outpaced on every respect so i gave up the idea of the 620).

let start with the cons: sound - whilst playing simple tunes i could'nt tell a significant difference between the kawai and one from roland's SN line, but playing single notes the difference was (to me) substantial; note decay, especially on lower notes, is richer, smoother and, also playing lower notes, i could phisically feel some vibrations under my finger; a sensation that i like, but i couldn't feel/haven't noticed on the cn33 (probably because of the speakers position?). that's a pity beacuse i could also feel it on the casio and is a feature that i'll miss.

and now the pros - action and touch: is not probably night and day but i do prefer kawai's touch and action. to my memory is far better even than the acoustic uprights i used to play (they were pretty basics pianos though). i felt roland's action lighter whilst kawai's seems (to me) far better weighted and balanced, almost like the "real thing".

At the end i chose the kawai. either of the pianos would have been a compromise: the kawai for sound and roland for action and touch. here is where price comes into play: roland's hp305 (the HP302 is not directly comparable, specs wise, to the CN33 and still is more expensive of about 350 USD) costs over 1000 USD more and the HP307 is another 1000 USD over the 305.

Probably a good player could benefit (if he liked the action) of roland's better (for me) sound engine: i guess it can provide highly expressive nuances, but unfortunatly is not my case: it will be a long time before i can reach that level of expressiveness. and again a good player would probably get the real thing anyway.

In the end i'm very happy: i didn't spend a fortune, action is great, sound is good and i can always try a software piano if in need of a better sound, but i can't get a software action

amigaoneit, congrats on your new piano - I hope it brings you many years of musical enjoyment.

[offtopic]

Are you an AmigaOne fan?

Cheers,
James
x

I wish I had one
It looks gorgeous!!!

Tks KJames i'm sure i will enjoy it very much.

[OT mode on]
First let me say that i've been lurking the forum for a few weeks now and i came across your posts pretty often. i began to appreciate your style: unbiased (at my eyes at least), helpful and together proud and ready to stand for the company you work for. this sounds a lot japanese to me, in fact if there is something i'm a fan of is Japan and its people. just wanted you to know that i found myself relieved noting that you continued posting after 3/11.

That said if you are talking about Amiga OS yes i'm a big fan of it and i pretty much believe that i've been one of the very last to drop the os (still have an A500 converted through the dedicated external HD to an A500+ and an A1200 with a 68030 expansion card, modded to use non proprietary external HDs and Cdroms) . As for my nick name, believe it or not, i've being using it long before AmigaOne project came to life.

One last thing i'm trying sending you a PM (may I?) but it looks like your inbox is full?

[/OT mode off]

Congrats amigaone. I think it's a good choice compared to the 7F also when comparing the price. About the sounds: you can experiment with layering two piano sounds from the two selection banks. I did this at one stage and ended up with a sound I really liked. But now I just prefer one of the standard unaltered piano sounds most of the time.

We like photo's in this thread once it's in its new home.

amigaoneit, many thanks for your kind words - I greatly appreciate the positive feedback.

[offtopic]

I grew up using an A500 for several years - a truly incredible machine! I also owned an A1200, which was upgraded to a 68030, then tower-ised with a CD-Rom, and finally added a ZorroII+CV64/3D a couple of years later - again, a excellent system which was a joy to use. Alas, I sold the entire setup in the late 90s, but continued to enjoy the AmigaOS using WinUAE and a Workbench distribution I put together called 'AIAB' - great memories.

[/offtopic]

BTW, I cleaned-up my message inbox, so please feel free to send a PM.

Cheers,
James
x

Thanks Spanish, i'm playing with layering, but at the moment i feel like default piano is ok.

if there is a trial i would like to try pianoteq.

as for the image there it is just unpacked (finished assembling late night)

oh i quite forgot happy Easter to everybody

Looks terrific - congrats amigaoneit!

And happy Easter to everyone too!

Cheers,
James
x

Thanks KJames

PS you have a PM

Nice one amigaoneit. Love the lamp too.

Just curious what touch setting do you like? I'm a 18months beginner and used to like the 1st heavy setting as I could get better p and pp. But now I'm on the default.

My wife thank's you, someone that appreciate her touch

as for touch settings i'm still working on it. probably it's me but the black keys are perfect on default whilst the white ones are a little lighter than what i was used to (but again it's a very very long time since i touched a piano) and the next heavy up settings are too heavy? i guess i need some more time to get used to it

Do the Touch settings change the tone at all, or do they just make it easier to access, for example, the softer samples?

I'm applying for the membership of CN33 club...