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Yep, practicing every day and loving it. No real/significant issues and I never even upgraded to the latest firmware. Easily one of the best purchases of my life.

Almost agree with you totally navindra.

My only gripe is that it doesn't make me a cup of coffee, which means my practicing is interrupted.

Kawai James: how about putting in a request for a coffee machine on the underside of the cabinet? Or maybe beer or wine. Whatever rocks people's boats.

A while ago I noticed that there is a metal strip directly underneath the keyboard near the front edge, that runs the whole width of the piano. I found its perfect to hold my tablet stylus (which is magnetic). That way it is safely out the way, cannot fall down accidentally but is still immediately available.

So... why not get one of those strong neodymium magnets and attach a coffee machine down there?

Do you mean the keyslip bracket? There's also a "U" channel bracket further back that's probably magnetic.

I've been playing less. Unfortunately. I usually play between 4-6am, but additional sleep duty with our 1yo makes it harder to keep up that schedule.

Another one that prefers odd hours for piano. I typically use the 2-4am slot myself.

Maybe? I have no idea what it's called.
It's below the keyboard, immediately behind the front edge, just 3cm deep but goes over the whole width, and is flush with the keyboard bottom. Very convenient for a magnetic pen.

What happened to this thread? How did it go off the rails?
So much promise, and now you’ve gone and thrown it all away!

Yes, I think that's the piece that keeps the keyslip on interesting fact, the bottom of the wooden piece (the keyslip) connected to that metal piece is not polished ebony on mine.

Hello navindra,

Thank you for the positive feedback.



Really? Is there a reason why?

The latest firmware fixes quite a lot of bugs, so is strongly recommended to all NV10 customers, along with CA98/CA78, ATX3/AURES owners also.

Kind regards,
James
x

@Kawai James - a bit off topic, I know, but is there anywhere one can see Kawai job openings? I can't see anything on the corp website nor in the EU one. And alas my Japanese isn't good enough to rummage that deep on the JP website.

Hecarim, as with most large Japanese companies, Kawai Japan hires new recruits every year in April. Here is the relevant page on the JP website:

https://www.kawai.co.jp/recruit/new_grad/

As for Kawai's overseas subsidiaries, I do not believe there is a recruitment page with openings listed, however I believe it should be possible to contact one of the companies directly (e.g. Kawai UK) to register your interest and submit your CV etc.

I'm sorry I cannot be of greater assistance.

Kind regards,
James
x

Thanks James!

Wow, does the April rule apply for Kawai JP HQ as a whole, i.e. for non-grads, too? I work for a JP company, too (no, not Yamaha or any other music company ), but we only apply the April rule for fresh meat from JP universities.

Anyway, thanks again for your answer - there is a very handy recruitment e-mail in that page, to which I will address my query.

Now back on the NV10 topic: NV owners, post some videos! It's been quite nice to listen to some N1X raw and uncut music from N1X owners, it'd be nice to hear some NV10 goodness, too.

Hello Hecarim,



Yes, April is the typical recruitment time for university graduates. However, I believe it's possible for non-grads (i.e. those who have already graduated, or have already been in employment at a different company) to be hired throughout the year.

Kind regards,
James
x

Hello,

Please pardon a stupid question from a newbie: we're on the verge of buying an NV10, and I started pawing through this thread after coming across (elsewhere on the Web) an alarmist lament about all its terrible deficiencies. My conclusion from perusing this thread is that there have indeed been infancy problems (my catalogue includes about a dozen), but that with firmware version 1.0.2g, most have been fixed. Other problems seem to have been one-off service issues. Is that a correct assessment?

FWIW, here's the background: our use of the instrument would be very pedestrian, as a study piano for my partner, a "returning adult" player (my role is tech support and appreciative audience ;-). We would have liked a real piano, but we travel a lot and our house remains unheated for much of the winter, so we settled on a high-end hybrid. Our (semi-)mobile solution is a Nord Piano 3, which got my partner hooked on computer-learning software, so a MIDI interface is now a must. We usually use headphones on the Nord, but the idea for the NV10 would be to use the builtin speakers.

In that context, I think the buzzing first reported by opus64 would be the only real show-stopper: I may be a mere techy, but I am picky about my audio! However, opus64 reported that this is much improved in firmware version 1.0.2g; is that a consensus opinion? Are there other things we should worry about?

Thanks in advance for your insights!

P.S. I see that Kawai occasionally comes in for some harsh criticism, even from this well-informed crowd. My ~40 years of of high-tech systems development have taught me that engineering simply cannot make such a complex hardware/firmware/software system perfect the first time out, even with the fantastic development and test tools we have today. In addition, manufacturing and service also take time to get up to speed. The exception are systems that pose a risk to human life; for these, we spend staggering sums on risk analyses, prototypes, testing, redundancy, etc. For "ordinary" products, where that cost is disproportionate, what really counts is how well the manufacturer and distributors can respond to our problem reports. Kawai seems to be doing well on that front; I am especially impressed by the active and intelligent participation of "Kawai James" on this forum. That sort of support costs money, and shows that the manufacturer does indeed care about its user community.

Hello Pkeller,

As you have read here, the NV10 had some issues. I can tell you the service, at least in my experience, has been excellent. My concern is that you plan to leave it in an unheated house. The NV10 doesn't have strings, of course. However, it does have the action of a grand piano. Lot's of wood parts. A long winter in Switzerland may not be the ideal environment.

Hello pkeller, welcome to the forum.

Thank you for your kind words.

I can appreciate your concerns, however I believe the majority of NV10 customers are very satisfied with their piano. Moreover, it seems that the latest v1.02g software update has resolved the sound issues that some customers were experiencing, while at least one other NV10 owner has found that the buzzing was caused by a loose screw in one of the leg assemblies.

Kind regards,
James
x

Eh, just the keys, keyframe, and hammer shanks, right? Everything else is composite, felt, metal, or plastic. I think the only part of the grand action that might need minor adjustments would be the keyframe bedding with seasonal humidity changes. The images I see appear to show the adjustment screws, just like a traditional Kawai grand action.

The relative humidity swings that tend to cause problems would probably be made worse if the temperature remained constant throughout the year, actually. Heating the dry winter air makes the relative humidity in the room plummet.

Hi pkeller,

I think you have the current situation well summed up.

I've mentioned it before several times, so you've probably already seen it when going through the thread, but I too am using the piano mainly via its external speakers and I think it works (and sounds!) very well for that scenario.

Being in Switzerland, any problems you may have with the piano would be handled by Kawai Europe in Germany, which I have found to be very friendly and quick to respond to all queries and reported problems. I've always felt that I'm in good hands with them. So even if you do encounter some problems, you shouldn't have any difficulties in getting them resolved (and as a very last resort, from the very few(!) reports here of people who didn't get them resolved to their satisfaction, they all were able to return the piano for their money back, so no risk there either).

And I agree with terminaldegree that I wouldn't worry about the winter period (but if you do, and if your house is near some skiing slopes, I would volunteer myself and my family to come over and heat it up for you for a week or so during winter ).

Well, Pkeller, I stand corrected. Living in So. Cal., it’s hard for me to imagine leaving a piano in freezing temperatures. (You said the house would be unheated.) FWIW, I had the opportunity to return my NV10 for a new one or for a full refund recently. I visited two Yamaha stores to try the new N1x and Nu1x, which are priced less than the NV10. However, I choose to accept a new replacement built this year. Partly because I’ve owned Kawai’s the past five years. But the attention I received from Kawai technicians played a big part in my decision.