Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Kawai Novus NV10 available in US ($11,999)?

I called a large Kawai dealer to ask about the NV10, and they said they just had and sold one, and are expecting more after NAMM. List price is $11,999 (USD of course).

Seems like we're off to the races.

Well, good luck to Kawai with that!

It will be very interesting to see who here, if anyone, actually buys one.

I said it in the other thread several times that the NV10 will be coming in at $12,300 just based on the advertised price on bonnersmusic.com. This makes total sense to me and is easily worth it if the Yamaha AvantGrand N2 is going for north of that. Plus, why would the NV10 be below $10,000 when the CS11 is $8,000. There was no way the NV10 wasn’t going to be several thousands of $$ more.

I suppose you can erase "or Kawai Novus NV10," from your signature. . .

Did the dealer say anything about the 'street price'?

Thanks,
Osho

Fact check: I can tell you from personal experience that the N2 can be purchased new in the US (tax free New Hampshire) for $8,000 + $100 for delivery. I suppose the comparison then would be to the N2X, which is very likely to be in the $12,000 range.

Nothing on street price, but it seemed like there was room to negotiate. I didn't want to ask too much more without first having a chance to try the product out.



I've very recently got a similar quote on an N2. There are also similar Yamaha-sponsored discounts on the N1, N3, and even the N3X.

It's kind of painful. Unless there's more to it than

Adjustable damper resonance
Adjustable noise gate
A few additional and different sample library sets
Improved headphone sound

The N2X is not really worth the speculated $4000 premium over the N2. I'm really hoping that there is something else as I will feel like a bit of a sucker as I'm forking over the cash.

There's always the NV10. I'm currently leery about jumping on that until I see a bunch of owner reviews (and of course I have an extended tryout or two). I know that the Avantgrands are solid.

In germany the novus is set for 8.999€ which is roughly 11.000$. To be honest, this was the price i've expected for that instrument.

Does that 8.999€ include standard 19% VAT rate? In the US I think retail prices typically include all US import duties and fees but then retailers typically add say 0%-10% "sales tax" based on state or city and maybe a few hundred $ for "delivery fees" (less "discount" as prices can get more negotiable for products some time after release).

This week a large US dealer told me he suspects Kawai has a small stash of inventory already at US HQ that will be released early February based on his experience with previous Kawai releases. But the dealer emphasized that he has not seen that inventory, does not have any inventory instore, and did not hear anything from Kawai about said stash of inventory.

He did say that he was very happy Kawai chose his shop to be distributing the NV10. He also said that he ordered several NV10s based on the "high volume" of customer inquiries calling and visiting.

Yes.

So to compare apples to apples (well excluding any negotiation discount and delivery fees):

Germany
7562€ + 1437€ Tax = 8.999€
9,226$ + 1752$ Tax ~11.000$

US
11,999$ + Tax ~ 11.999$ to 13.200$

Well to be fair, the N2 was over $12,000. When I bought my first N1 back in 2011 the N2 was selling for $12,999. The new N2X will be at the least right there. I paid $8600 for my first N1 in 2011 and $7600 for the second N1 in 2014. I don’t know why people on here are shocked by the price tag of the NV10. Its so similar in design and features as the N2X. Why would or should it not be priced accordingly?

Like I said before, it will be very interesting to see how many people here who think that $12,000 is a reasonable price for the NV10 (when it lists for $7,895 in Japan) - actually buy one.

Yes, I was going to point out that the Yamaha started off with a higher price. The N3 I played in a shop last week is from, what, 2013 or 2014? So it had years to go down in price. And you can hear that the sound engine is dated.

The new Kawai sound engine is in an other league. That is not even a surprise, that is just a couple of years in development progress. So if people brought the N3 etc. I do not worry that Kawai will sell the NV10. The sound engine is top notch e.g. on resonances (my pet peeve) and the acoustic-grand-piano-pedaling action of the Novus will get some people exited.

Trying to do currency conversions is futile, different markets have always attracted different prices.

Are other DPs (avantgrands included) similarly cheaper in japan, or is the novus unusually cheap there?

My impression so far is that the novus has consistently been pitched between the N1 and N2 (and likely their X sucessors) list prices, this was clear months ago.

UK: N1 = £6k, N2 = £10k, novus = £8k. US: N1 = $10k, N2 = $15k, novus = $12k.

Yes in the US you can get some N1 and N2s for some pretty steep discounts right now but they're fairly old and due to be replaced. Even so, my impression is that the deliberate 'mark up' on US list prices is greater than it is in some other markets which is one of the reasons trying to compare via currency conversion is silly. The novus list price might be 12k, I doubt that's going to be paid by anyone not daft.

That's also very true here in Germany. The N2 is still, after all these years, way more expensive than the upcoming NV10 and its much newer tech:

N1: 6,390€
NV10: 8,999€
N2: 11,690€
N3X: 16,999€

(all prices are actual online prices incl. 19% VAT).

So here in Germany, Yamaha doesn't seem to think (yet?) that it is necessary to give a discount on the N2, which positions the NV10 almost exactly in the middle between the N1 and the N2.

Wow. In SoCal here, you should easily be able to find the N2 for $8K to $8.5K including delivery.

Honestly, an N2 at even $8500 with delivery is a heck of a deal. That's a lot of instrument for $8500, and in my opinion and experience, likely surpasses the quality of any acoustic instrument in that same range, unless a steal can be found on a quality large upright like U3, or grand. When I had my RX-2 I paid $10,000 for it in 2013 and it was a 1997 build. If I were in the market now for something like the NV10 or N2/N2X, I'd be buying the N2 at $8500 delivered.

It is a great deal, however for those of us who buy pianos and hang on to them, it can make sense to pay a premium for the very best available at the time of purchase. I expect to be playing my N2X or NV10 in 10-15 years and won’t care that I paid more for it than the N2 which has issues I”m not satisfied with today.