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I have been desperately trying to find a U.K Kawai stockist who offer decent finance but have been unable to find any who have the CN43 in stock. I have found a shop with the CN33 in stock though, it is a few hundred pounds cheaper too, I'm wondering if I would lose a lot by choosing the lesser model? I would love t hear from owners of both, if you have a cn33 do you feel it needs improving, would you rather have the cn34 and do you think the extra features are worth the extra cash?

Let's see, basically the CN43 has more powerful (probably better) speakers and a lot more voices. Otherwise very similar pianos.

Personally I would be likely to save my money and grab the CN33 probably. A few hundred pounds sounds like a lot of money to me.

For me personally the CN43 is worth the 140e difference (on thomann) in comparison to CN33 because
- Tone Control (Brilliance setting on the CN43 - missing on the CN33)
- ability to record to mp3 directly [vs. midi for CN33]
- more polyphony (192 vs 96)
- extra Plate reverb (personal favorite for Galaxy Pianos; don't know how good this one is)
- better speakers (dedicated tweeters + more power:50W vs 20W on the CN33)
- more voices
- better LCD screen (2 lines vs. 1 line - I hope I'm right on this one)

A CN33 owners riposte

>Tone Control (Brilliance setting on the CN43 - missing on the CN33)
Maybe

>ability to record to mp3 directly [vs. midi for CN33]
Don't use it. My camera records very good quality mp3 IMHO

>more polyphony (192 vs 96)
Overrated. Never had a polyphony problem even during the period I was overlaying two piano voices

>extra Plate reverb (personal favorite for Galaxy Pianos; don't know how good this one is)
You don't know and neither do I (if it's 'reverb' I tend to turn that down anyway

>better speakers (dedicated tweeters + more power: vs 20W on the CN33)
Maybe. My CN33 is in quite a small room. I normally have the volume between 1/2 and 2/3

>more voices
Nope. I use a single piano voice 99% of the time. Occasional Church Organ, and occasional strings overlay

> better LCD screen (2 lines vs. 1 line - I hope I'm right on this one)
This is a joke right? Turn it on and play 99% of the time

Bogs' comparison list is more or less complete. I would add that the CN43 also includes a 'Rhythm Section' feature with 100 accompaniment styles.

In my opinion the CN33 is already a very good mid-range instrument. The 140 Euros or so that it costs to upgrade to the CN43 is a relatively small amount over the lifetime of the instrument, and buys you a number of great additional features. Not essential, perhaps, but certainly nice to have.

Cheers,
James
x

Thanks for that , good to have different points of view! So it sounds lie the cn33 is great but as I have the option I think I will have to be patient and wait for the cn43 to be back in stock
Also I was wondering, all the Kawai's that i've looked at say they have Damper , Sostenuto and Soft pedals, but no mention of sustain?

damper=sustain

The damper is the sustain pedal, and the sostenuto pedal is a selective sustain pedal.

This is all standard where there are 3 pedals. But where the differences come in is in an assignable pedal (can be the 'soft' pedal). Which the manufacturer can assign to completely different tasks such as octave doubling, vibrato control and tone changing.

In fact, the soft pedal is only there at all for the sake of appearance and convention as its use is virtually obsolete on an electronic instrument where you have total control over volume. The 'soft pedal' would be valid if it made a true 'una corda'* affect, but I don't think that is the case on all but top end digital.

*una corda makes a qualitative as well as quantitative (volume) difference and is the system on grand pianos.

In all digitals with a "soft" pedal that I'm aware of, it emulates una corda behavior, modifying the timbre the same way una corda does on a grand.

Oh yes? I didn't realise that. Thanks gvfarns - I'll do some experiments!

Thanks for clarifying that for me!