Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards owners of kawai ca63 & 93

Hi all ,
How are you still liking your pianos .I'm finding after owning Roland and yamaha after 6 months I start to dislike the sound .Also is the extra money for the 93 worth having .
To give a fair answer to this question you need to have played your kawai a lot and longer than atleast 6 months .

Hi daz100,
For some reason, I've noticed that effect you're describing too. With some brands that is.

For me it's like the opposite, my Kawai CA93 just seems to be getting better and better. This is probably a combination of:
1. getting familiar with every aspect and appreciating build quality.
2. sub-optimal factory presets, but several newly developed dual voice presets that are really to my liking (and no polyphony issues whatsoever).
3. the soundboard and 6-speaker system being a perfect match for my room's acoustics up to grand like volumes (given optimal placement from the wall).
4. the excellent action.
5. some small bugfixes and new features by way of firmware updates (good stuff; give us more where that came from, Kawai!).
6. ...

Hi daz100,

for me there is an easy answer to this. I own my CA63 now for more than 1,5 years, and I appreciate it at least as much as I did on the first day.

Even more, I just play the instrument rather than experimenting with the sound or any settings, because I've found (with the help of TADutchman) my ideal sound setting which I use now for, I guess, 8-10 months. That's one of the reasons why I'm just following the forum only from time to time.

For me the sound is very charming and brilliant both with headphones and with loudspeakers, but the best thing about the CA63 is the touch and the action of the keyboard. It's just so natural and very much like the real thing that I simply don't have the desire to play on a real acoustic (okay, I'm exaggerating a little bit).

you see, one can be very happy with a DP even after some years!
(If it's a KAWAI...)

I've also owned a CA63 for over a year, and I am still extremely happy with it. The action is superb, and is also the quietest DP action I have tried. My one remaining bugbear with it is about to be fixed in a patch - that is if you press a key very slowly down to the keybed, it still plays a note. On other threads here, this is promised to be fixed in the 1.09 firmware (and is already fixed in the 1.08 that is shipping with some Kawai instruments). In practice, that has made zero difference to my appreciation of the instrument, so it is a very minor complaint.

Thanks for your reply ,although I still need more convincing ,there must be a lot of owners out there of both these pianos.also still I need to know is the ca93 worth the extra money

Well, I'm not even trying to convince you to buy a CA93 or CA63. I.m.h.o. that's something you have to do yourself by actually playing the instruments before purchase.

Let me just ask you a question out-of-the-box: do you own at least entry level audiophile-grade Hifi equipment which you like to play at let's say 80 - 90dB listening volume and can you actually hear the difference in quality with a low budget Hifi system? (I don't need to know the answer)
If yes, then you will probably appreciate a CA93.

The reason for my post was to ask opinions from people who have owned these pianos for over 6 months.
If I go and try these pianos I may really like them but I still could fall into the trap after 6 months the sound will become boring or dull just like the rolands I have owned in the past.
I have read posts here that people get there piano home and for some reason they soon become to dislike them especially the rolands so it seems.
Only people who have played Everyday over time and say that they still enjoy the sound of their instruments will be convincing.

Why should someone else's sound preference be the same as yours?

Well, I guess that makes Mucci, myself and I'm sure lots of others, that may or may not visit this forum, very convincing! (even if we don't want to be)

KeemaNan (Peshawari every time for me...),



The v1.09 update was released last weekend:

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1753927/

Cheers,
James
x

Excellent ! Thanks - I somehow missed that thread.

Hi

I've had a CA93 since March.
I just love the touch of the 63 and 93 it was so much better than the Roland 307 or the Yamaha that I tried. I'm not so fussed about the harmonic sound; I think there is a lot of natural variation in acoustic pianos and also the room that you put it in will make a huge difference.

I notice that many people of this forum do not think that the price difference between a 63 and 93 is worth it. If you play through headphones that is surely true, but the soundboard and speaker system is much better than the 63 especially in the lower registers.
It's seriously loud, I reckon I play at a volume setting of 3-4 out of 10 for practice and maybe upto 5 for accompanied work, level 10 is just anti-social.

I probably play about 1 hour a day, just finished learned "Les adieux" sonata and performing Brahms violin sonatas 1 & 3 etc. So you have some idea of my playing level.

If there was anything other than the N1 I would have taken, and almost did, it'd be the CA93, which, IMHO, could almost be called a hybrid, since it uses a real acoustic soundboard. As much as I love my N1, and I really love my N1, the CA93 would surely have sufficed as a grand replacement for my requirements, and Kawai probably sounds a little better as well. The strongest points of the AvantGrands are the action first and foremost, the gorgeous furniture, and the superb sound system. The sound is quite good through the speaker system, but I remember getting my socks knocked off when the Kawai salesman played the CA93 for me. The CA93 sounds better than any baby grand.

I'll ditto Zachary. After trying them all, including the CA63, several months ago we decided to buy the CA93. This was a replacement for a Kawai grand, so we had been spoiled. We thought the CA93 had a more realistic sound thanks to the soundboard. We've not regretted our purchase, and a few people who have heard our CA93 thought it was a real piano before we corrected them.

Good luck. Deciding to pull the trigger is like having a baby - both painful and a relief.

I have the CA63 and I love everything about it except the SOUND. It is a little too thin for me. The abundant resonance and slow decay rate is not to my liking also. The slow decay rate just seems to hold a tone much too long so it begins to dominate the sound....especially in the lower register.

I now funnel the sound through 2 Yamaha HS80M powered monitors (attached to the phones jack) and that has helped with the thin sound.

Slow deacy rate is a problem on a digital piano?

Really??

Have you played many acoustics?

Well, no I really haven't. But now that you mention it ... the few that I have played I really didn't like either. They were mostly too loud and difficult to get a real nice clean sound on them. Of course, they were not Steinway Grands either.

I like my music to be soft, but clear as a bell and loud when needed but not too much resonance.

Maybe I am looking for something that doesn't exist.

Well, simply choose EQ Mid Cut and enter the virtual technician: zero out damper and string resonance.

Maybe a fortepiano?

I do not see EQ Mid Cut. I see EQ Mid Reduce. I assume that is the same thing.

I used to have a user defined EQ as LOW = -6, MID = -6, and HIGH = -6. Trying to reduce resonance throughout the keyboard. Was that a bad idea ?