Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Kawai CN37 Question

This is my first post and I am new to this forum over the past week, but have enjoyed browsing it. Thanks in advance to anybody here humoring me. I currently have a Yamaha P71 and started playing about 5 months ago, so this is all pretty new to me - but I play a lot and want to make a reasonable investment in something nice.

Being in the market for a new digital piano, I came across a great deal locally for a Kawaii CN37. My intentions were actually to pick up the CA48, but the lack of line out and ability to record really is just a flat out deal breaker for me at that price range - regardless of how great the key action is. I'm not too crazy about the panel design either, but could have overlooked that. Jumping $1000 to the CA58 is tough to justify for these reasons, as much as I like it - and it just so happens they have the CN37 in my store at a nice discount even cheaper than the CA48.

While this seems like a great deal, I've been put off by a few comments regarding a key action issue on the CN37 where it supposedly develops clicking over time (this sounds like it would drive me absolutely nuts if it's true).

The problem is I'm having trouble gauging just how common this issue is and if it's reasonable to even expect it at all - basically just because I read that it happened to 1 or 2 people on the internet doesn't necessarily mean it's rampant. It seems like an extremely small sample size to go off of, so I just thought I would bounce this off of a larger crowd if possible.

So does anyone know for sure if this is a common issue plaguing the CN37? I'm in the US, is it potentially just specific to Europe or some other region? Is there anything else I should be worried about or considering?

Thanks again - any input is appreciated!

Opinions, opinions and opinions. No!
Go to the music store and try all these pianos, even couple of times.
Everyone like and hear different. Most of people here probably indicate you to CA series but me - I would indicate you to CN, because for me keyboard action of CN is more pleasant but this is for me only.
How you know, what fit just to you?

Do you live where Kawai has good service? That would be my main concern. I like the action on Kawai CA58 better for what its worth. Your reaction might be different. Also with the CN39 being out now you should get a great deal on the CN37 model. I have been debating with myself for several months on which one to get. Yamaha CLP645, Roland HP704 or LX705, Kawai CA58 or CA78 myself. I have pluses and minuses for each one.
Now that I waited this long, for the kicks of it I want to try the new Kawai NV5. This might be dangerous!

Good luck in your choice

Thanks for the response Richie! Don't get me wrong, I tried ALL of these units in the store before writing this up and loved them.

I don't necessarily need help choosing which one, but I'm more trying to find some peace of mind in regards to this whole CN37 key clicking debacle (It doesn't happen at the store - but I've heard it's an issue that creeps up weeks or months down the road). I will probably just take the leap of faith and hope my model doesn't have issues, I probably shouldn't let a couple bad apples turn me away when there is such an overwhelmingly positive response to this unit.

Thanks again!

Personally, I love my CN37... I bought it a little before the CN39 came out, so I got a nice discount too. I think its RH3 action is very good and playable, but after 2 months of intensive playing, I got the infamous sticky sound after the release of fully-depressed keys. Honestly, I don't care much (with headphones I cannot even hear it), but if you could go nuts for every little noise that a plastic mechanics could develop with time, then I suggest you play it safe by investing more money on a model with wooden action.
Currently, the CA58 costs about € 500 more than the CN39. I think they would be well spent, because the CA58 has wooden action, a better sound engine and much better speakers. But the difference with a discounted CN37 would be much bigger (about € 800), so in that case the choice would be more difficult...

P.S.: real acoustic grand pianos can have much noises in the action. See this noise on the release of a key:
That's much louder than the little sticky noise of my keys...

I have had nothing other than Kawai digital pianos for years now and have never experienced any issues with clicking keys.

I would not let that even enter my mind as a factor.

And I'd imagine a piano tuner/technician is very experienced in easily fixing such noises whereas in the digital world it can often be difficult to even take the piano apart.

Yes, probably for a piano technician would be easier to remove the piano action from an acoustic piano cabinet, compared to making the same thing on a digital piano, but I'm pretty sure my sticky noise issue would be much easier to fix, compared to fixing that loud mechanical noise from the acoustic in the above video. In my case I think it's just some excessive grease accumulated under the keys (probably around the sensor pads). But I'm too lazy to disassemble the piano and do the necessary cleaning, and I'm playing always with headphones so I don't care.

And I don't exclude that over time these little noises will disappear by themselves... We'll see after 1 year of use.

Thanks for the responses - I appreciate it.

Ended up grabbing the piano and love it, my local dealer seems really helpful so if I do run into anything that bad I think I'd probably be able to resolve it.

At the end of the day as long as the key action/feel itself doesn't change, even if it clicks a bit I guess you just pump up the volume - it gets pretty loud!

I don't think there's such a thing as an acoustic with a quiet action. I'd return it to the shop in that case. Don't like to be short changed.
Now, Pianoteq does key click and pedal noise etc etc superbly well, I wack mine up full (masks the playing) so just supposing there isn't enough noise in your action . . . .

Good choice. I think that the CN37 is a great deal if bought at discounted price. To me its weak point are the speakers, very midrangey... But from what I read in this forum it is the weak point of all the DP < $2000 (and I read that even the top-models sometimes are not so good, from this point of view). But with the LINE-OUT you can upgrade the sound with some good monitor speakers to get a much better experience. I play with good headphones so, for now, I don't care, but maybe in future I will buy some decent speakers.

Congrats on your new piano filthywill!

Regarding key-clicking reports, to be honest I think there are more posts from people writing "I have read about key-clicking problems" than actually posts about said problems.

Kind regards,
James
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