Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Need Advice Purchasing Kawai CS11

I'm looking to purchase a Kawai CS11. The CA99 is replacing the CS11, so I thought I would buy a CS11 for a discounted price. The dealer nearest me is 2 hours away, and they do not have a CS11 in stock. I contacted dealers in other states, and they tell me that they cannot quote price over the phone or email. With this situation, I have the following questions:

- Is there another way for me to buy the CS11?
- Can I order from Europe?
- Is there a website that sells used CS11 units?
- Should I just wait for the CA99 (which probably costs more)?
- Should I start considering Roland LX708 (they have a dealer near me with LX708 in stock).

I do not see any indication that the price for the Kawai CS11 is dropping in Germany (and the CA99 is already available). While you could order one in Europe, the shipping cost would be very high and I do not think that you can switch it from our 220V to your (I assume US) 110V. As of now, the price for the Kawai CA99 seems to be a bit lower than the price of the Kawai CS11 (I only checked a few German stores). Can't comment on the Roland...

At Thomann the CA99 non-EP is €200 more expensive than a CS11, and the EP version a few hundred on top of that. The CS11 is 'only' €3700.

Schlüsselbund - interesting. I can only see the High Gloss CS-11 at Thomann. They must be showing you other options. Of course it didn't make sense to compare the "normal" CA99 to the High Gloss CS-11... Sorry.

Okay so this is really weird. I cannot see the CS11 in polished ebony any more. It was E3699 hours ago, now it tells me it is discontinued/no longer available. The CA99 in PE is E4400, a solid E800 more. But I can now only see the satin white CS11, which is for some odd reason E3975. For a whopping E5 (yeah, five) more you get a decent pair of headphones and a bench. Meanwhile the white CA99 is E100 cheaper.

This is all very silly...

Maybe we need to delete cookies and then check again. At least from me they know that I checked about a million times on Kawai DPs, especially when the CA79 is finally in store...

This Option.

I don’t understand the accepted notion that the CA99 is replacing the CS11. If anything, the NV5 with the real upright action is replacing the CS11. At least that is a good reason to discontinue it. The sound renderings in the CS11 are also outdated. Just my opinion.

The CS11 was the top-CA DP in ab upright body. The CA99 is the current top-CA in an upright body. They all had a version of the GF action. The CA99 is the CS11 but with all bits updated to current gen CA. Novus is different altogether, action-wise.

JoBert had a good analysis a few weeks about why this was likely the case. In short, the CS-series has been made a bit redundant with the recent changes to the CA-99, which has inherited the upright cabinet from the CS-11. So now, between the CA-99 (and yes the NV-5 as well), there's little point in a CS series, and Kawai likely isn't updating it (I don't think this is officially confirmed, but Kawai James has pretty much indicated it's the case).

Hello richdinoso,

Regarding this point:



I don't believe European online retailers will allow large items (such as the CS11) to be shipped to the US. As noted above, the European and US power standards are also different, meaning that a transformer would be required in order use the instrument. Moreover, the instrument's warranty would not be valid in the US.

For these reasons, I would recommend against attempting to purchase a CS11 from Europe and shipping it to the US.

Kind regards,
James
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Good points, James. Thank you.

The Purpose of the CS Series was having the PE finish. Nothing else. Since the CA Series is also providing the PE finish, there is no need for the CS Series anymore.

Well, in the case of the CS11, the upright piano cabinet was also a unique selling point.

However, now that the CA99 has a modern upright piano design, this is less of a factor.

Kind regards,
James
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