Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Kawai to preview NOVUS NV10 hybrid piano at Musicmesse 2017

It looked like there was a cable running to the Line Out port in the NV10.

Beautiful piano, and not surprising that the Pianist Mode was used. I've been using Pianist Mode almost exclusively now on my CA98, and the YouTube recording sounded very similar to what I hear from Pianist Mode/Classic setting. Presume that the Sound Mode is also available on the NV10.

Look forward to playing one down the road to see how much of a difference the action makes over the Grand Feel of the CA98.

FWIW, I found that the display isn't distracting at all. I just keep it on all the time now.

I don't think James is in any better position than the rest of us. At any rate, he said he was 99% certain which is rather different and in some respects a bit of an oxymoron. You cannot be partially certain about something! /english pedantry.

That said, it seems conclusive enough to me. It sounds far too similar to the SK-EX sample on my cs8 to be anything other than a line out capture. There's zero player/keyboard noise and zero 'colouring' of the sound that would be expected from the room or microphone and you'd expect some visible microphones for any setup that would be good enough to minimise those issues.

Nothing in life is 100% sure, I always count in 1 or 2 % chance that I can be wrong. But I work in sound, I'm a sound recordist for a living. And what I hear in this clip is a very pure recording of the SK-EX samples, in perfect conditions. I myself would not be able to make such a perfect recording with my best microphones in that room, even if there was a real SK-EX. What we hear doesn't match the acoustics of the room we see. To me it's clear I hear a direct output of the piano's samples thru the line out output.

I myself also don't like what Kawai is doing with the black felt in this piano, just like their CS11, and GX line of piano's. I like the traditional red felt in most piano's. Just like I don't like the Copper-colored plate in the Yamaha CX piano's.

Let's not read too much into it (or dive into a deeply philosophical inquiry into the meaning of absolute certainty). I assume James wasn't there to personally confirm the output, but perhaps Kawai has a policy to use line out whenever they release an audio sample, and there isn't any reason for him to believe anything else was the case here.

He's just trying to be helpful, and at the same time acknowledge that maybe there's a possibility that he's wrong. I can just imagine the future pitchforks being raised and people shouting "How can we trust KJ now?! Last time he told us the sound was line-out but he was lying! So he's lying now, too!"

I agree about the black felt - dull and ugly. But I love Yamaha's copper-coloured plate!

Sound : nothing special. Kinda disappointing instrument video. Can they play something more dull than this ? We want constrasts, bass, dynamics, we want a real sound demo ffs...

It's interesting how many excellent VPC1 YouTubes are out there with classical and jazz solos. Granted it's been out a number of years and it's more accessible price-wise. Also quite a few Avantgrand videos to listen to whet the appetite of a potential hybrid buyer. Funny there seem to not be many for the CA series. at least that I've seen.

Hopefully we'll start seeing quality NV10 performance content on YouTube in the coming months. Of course, by the time that happens I'll have pulled the trigger on either an NV10 or an N2X, so too late for me...

FYI: The Novus has now appeared in the Thomann online shop, with the same price that I found in December in a different online shop (8999€) and an "expected delivery date" of January 29th.

I've previously received a statement from Thomann via email, that once the "expected delivery date" is given as "immediate delivery", I can assume that they also have it in their show room for testing. So I hope that this will be soon.

£8199 on Bonners.

All of the blurb they have said they expected it in from 'Oct to Dec 2017'. So clearly that never happened!

Would expect they would get it in quickly, as they seem to put out a lot of videos etc about Kawai, so I would expect Kawai would be keenish to get one in their hands.

Sort of makes me wonder if there hasn't been some technical issue with this piano that hasn't been generally made public? As it seems odd that there has been such a big gap to them actually appearing anywhere?

Oh come on. What "big gap"? The announcement was only 3 months ago (plus a few days). Such a gap is normal for such an item. Even for the freshly announced CA58, Kawai James just said that he would expect that they will be in shops maybe in March. Deducing a possible technical issue from that is a bit ridiculous.

Hardly.

Common sense.

If Apple has a launch date and then pushes it back a month you know its a technical issue.

I don't see that this is any different, other then that its a lot longer period, so considerably more likely.

Just noticed this in a Finnish digital piano shop that also carries Kawai:

https://www.digitalpiano.fi/kawai-novus-nv10.html

Price is 9000€, and there's at least stated availability. I visited their store in December and they said they should get one on the floor, perhaps on January. Once I noted it's in the web, I called them, but unfortunately currently they only have one at Copenhagen (it's a subsidiary or close partnership with a large Danish music store).

Once customer reportedly had been excited enough to book flights to Copenhagen to check it out, and they had a waiting list of people to be notified once NV10 is available for testing in Finland. So it seems there is demand even in a country with 5M people.

(admittedly the climate changes around the year a bit harsher for acoustics, and most people in capital area don't have room for a grand, so maybe not so surprising).

I find the price quite nice, especially if there was any room for negotiation. If N2X will come out around 11 000€, the NV10 will be between new N1 and possibly discounted N2s, and the N2X.

Given the apparent demand on this the 'technical issue' may simply be a decision to have prioritised japanese demand somewhat.

Anyway I'm not sure what bonners have been saying but it's been clear from various places that 'mid Jan' has been a likely EU delivery date for yonks now (at least since autumn or so), so end Jan would be about 2 weeks?

I'm curious. If people were lining up £8000 for a piano. The NV10 or an acoustic grand.

Do you think you could get a good acoustic grand for £8000?

For me that question is irrelevant, because I do not want an acoustic grand.

But honestly, no, unless you are very luck on the used market, I don't think you can find a good grand for that price.

Depends on your criteria. I've seen very well-behaving second-hand german grands (admittedly small ones) for around €3000.

I should have been more specific. I meant: “For that budget you must make a lucky find on the used market, because you won’t find a good new grand for that price.”

You are comparing apples with oranges.

Apple has two dates: The announcement date when the new product is announced, together with its release date. And that release date. If the actual release should then be later than this release date, then it might be reasonable to assume some sort of problem.

Kawai however only had an announcement date (back in October). They never gave a release date. They only said that they are now finished with the Novus and will now bring it to market. Without any target date. As no date was given, by definition it is impossible to be “too late “ for that date.

And taking a few months to bring a new piano to market overseas is not surprising to me.

Kawai "announced" the NV10 in October of 2017 - really?

"only 3 months ago" - really?

Musikmesse 2017 was over 9 months ago...

Kawai's press release again "announcing" the NV10 was 7 months ago.

Kawai's promotional videos of the NV10 started 6 months ago.

Etc., etc., etc.

Pologuy, I don't wish to give the impression that I'm always correcting your posts, but...



As the title of this thread states, the NV10 exhibited at Musicmesse last year was a preview - a work-in-progress prototype, i.e. not the finished instrument.



Yes, but for the Japanese domestic market, and that was largely to coincide with a separate event (arguably too early in my opinion, but I'm not responsible for domestic matters).



May I ask which videos you are referring to, please?

To reiterate, the NV10 was officially announced for the overseas market on October 20th here. At that time, an exact availability date was not specified, however the instrument has obviously arrived at a small selection of stores, and will gradually become available to more dealers in the weeks and months ahead.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
James
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