Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Kawai Novus NV10 - Hands On

In Europe -roughly :

N1 : 6500 €
N2 : 11500 €
Novus : 9000 €

The Novus is exactly between the two in terms of price. Whatever, the comparison would be not fair even with the N2 because it was launched in 2011 and it's outdated now. From my point of view the Novus sounds way better than the N1 in the video, however I'm not so impressed, the sound seems a bit bland for me. In my opinion the Dexibell H7 sounds better, more lively, and it's only 2800 € (but without quality grand action ofc).

Crazy, the NV10 is almost 4K more than the N2 here in the US.

I was looking at the best listed UK prices online from "PriceSpy", which are £4800 for the N1, £8200 for the Novus, and £9500 for the N2, which is a little closer to what I said. But you're right that in your case it's more or less halfway in between.


That's true. What would really impress me is if the Novus compared favorably to the much more recent N3X. (Of course that would be unfair in the other direction price-wise, which is why it'd be very impressive if the NV10 still came out on top.)

A few hopefully interesting notes from Day 2 with the NV-10.

I was trying to get Garritan CFX working, and wanted to see if it could function with the line-in on the NV-10. The problem is I was getting some horrible noise through both speakers and headphones with the MBP connected.

It would get a little better or worse as I moved around the audio-out cable from my MBP to the NV-10's line-in, but was still horribly noticeable. And the noise modulated whenever I adjusted volume on the laptop, so it was clear where it was coming from. After an hour or so, I decided to give up.

Just by pure chance, I pulled the USB-B cable (MIDI-over-USB) out first, and as soon as I did that, the noise completely disappeared! I still had the MBP connected to the NV-10 via line-in, and when I played sounds/music from the MBP, they came through crystal clear on the NV-10's speakers (and through the headphone jack).

Sounds like there's some kind of ground loop issue with the USB connection? I'm assuming it's not the NV-10's fault, but now I have to figure out how to connect the laptop without getting an incessant buzzing.

The silver lining is that I spent more time with the SK-EX rendering engine on pianist mode, and it's REALLY good. There's something more dynamic and responsive about it than Sound mode, but I can't really place my finger on it. Garritan CFX is still more full-bodied and natural, but the next few days and weeks will be just with the native sound engine.

The other takeaway is that it seems the NV-10 doesn't have any kind of noise gate. My MP11 had a noticeable one attached to the line-in. But on the Novus, I could adjust the line-in volume as much as I wanted (there are, surprisingly, three+ avenues to adjust this) and the sound never cut out.

Talk to your dealer

Congratulations Gombessa !!!

Can you please elaborate further in the noise? It isn't clear to me. Are you saying that the noise occurs if you use USB for midi connection but not the regular MIDI cable?

Thanks
Osho

I don't have any regular MIDI cables, so I can't test that configuration out..

Here's the setup I tried:

MBP USB-C -> USB-B -> NV-10 USB-to-host
MBP audio out -> 1/8" male to male -> NV-10 line-in
NV-10 headphone out -> headphones (or speakers)

With everything set up, I get low level digital/electronic noise coming out of the NV-10 speakers at nearly any reasonable volume.

However, if I remove the USB-B cable, the setup looks like this:

MBP audio-out -> 1/8" male to male -> NV-10 line -in
NV-10 headphone out -> headphones

And there's zero noise at all. But any audio coming out of the MBP plays crystal clear through the NV-10's line in.

There's also zero noise if my setup is:

MBP USB-C -> USB-B -> NV-10 USB-to-host
MBP audio out -> headphones

So plugging in USB-B for MIDI control (perhaps in connection with line-in) causes noise. But the noise is not coming from the audio cable, it's being caused by the USB connection, it seems.

In addition to the four links to the new YouTube clips about the NOVUS NV10 above (or page before), here's another link to a Danish speaking dealer - obviously a store in Denmark named "digital PIANO.dk, Juhl Soerensen" - removing/lifting the grand piano fallboard during his presentation at 1:17.

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-HA9X8f5qQ
„Kawai Novus NV10 - Introduktion på Dansk“

As you can see, removing/lifting the fallboard happens in about 2 seconds and is basically very easy with this instrument. However, there are many grand piano manufacturers who are really tricky about this and where, in addition, it is necessary to remove some small screws beforehand, as Kawai James has implied before. But not so with the NV10. This work goes here really easy and fluid.
Then the presenter carefully reinserts the fallboard at 1:32, which takes about 10 seconds.

Nevertheless one can make mistakes out of carelessness. This happens even to experienced piano-technicians at the end of their often exhausting regulation work, which can take hours, and then it comes to damage because they have not focused enough for the final seconds of all the work done before for this simple and final action! A note that sounds banal, but it is not: Hold the fallboard when lifting and re-inserting really firm (!) in the hands, otherwise it can fall to the keyboard and do everything really slowly without any pressure to the material. When re-inserting, make sure that the fallboard on the right and left side really gets into the respective guides. That's it.

Why am I writing this at all? It happens again and again that pencils which are dropped on top of the grand piano before the music rest (!) roll down into the gap between the keyboard cover and housing. If you do not carefully and calmly remove the pen from its "dangerous" position, it rolls/falls behind the open keyboard lid down to the inside of the instrument on the keyboard. This happens especially when one now moves the fallboard, e.g. to close it. On the keyboard, the pen rattles while playing, which of course is incredibly annoying. The pen must be taken out again. There is no other way. Exactly for this, one should know, how to remove the fallboard itself (!) and put it back in, without having to let a technician come for it. After all, you only want to have your pen back and finish the rattling in the instrument and not tinker with the electronics.

In this respect, I can only recommend, in this regard, the "analog" and "acoustic" parts such as wood, felts and leather of his digital instrument (with all necessary caution) get to know. These things should not be a “black box”.

Hope, that this will help, if someone is in such a "big" trouble. So, don't worry and be happy, that you are able to open the NV10 so easily from frontside (!) and get your instrument "repaired".

Frank

You have the dreaded ground loop. Your Mac's USB ground is not the same level as NV10's audio ground. When you tie them together like in your first setup, you hear her the 60hz hum.

I would suggest plugging both of them to the same outlet (have the laptop plugged in). Or some other combination to bring the USB and NV10's audio ground to the same ground. Googling for "usb ground loop" should also give you some other ideas.

Thanks redfish for the suggestions. I'll google around for more options.

Both laptop and NV-10 were plugged into the same surge protector on the same outlet. I also unplugged the MBP from USB-C power at one point (so it was on battery) and the hum persisted.

Why not enjoy the sights?

My Yamaha makes ground loop noises when used with USB and line in. My solution is to use a plain MIDI link.

Glad to hear that

Hello Gomessa,

congratulations on the NV10!! Maybe I can enlighten you on THAT one, because today a had (finally) the time for a longer "side by side" comparison of teh NV10 and the CA98. Yes it arrived finally at my dealer in Germany:

Playing the NV10 was really a joy but soon I found out the KAWAI seems to suffer the same systematic Problem with their Action on the NOVUS as they had with the first CA97 and the GF2 Actions: The Millenium Action (when you take out the front board) is perfectly "assembled" but not "regulated". So the individual keys are slightly different in their "response". Noticeable but not really a big Problem.

Seems to me that they assamble the NV10 maybe on their digital piano line. I asked my dealer, how to service the Novus. He told me that this will be done with their Service technicians for the digital line (I know Markus from the adjustment of my older CA97). Brilliant guy. Don't know how he would do on the NOVUS Action. On the other hand a piano craftsman on the light sensors of the NOVUS NV10? Hmmm. But that is already a bit the Problem with the GF2 too.

Second I really can confirm your first impressions: The tone of the NOVUS is "round" and clear a real joy to play. Compared with the CA98 is sounds lighter. Details are missing on the top and in the bass. Here the CA98 is a bit too "bombastic" in the bass sometimes :-). The NOVUS sounds somewhat in between the CA97 and the CA98 to me.

I couldn't find tweeters on the NOVUS (like on the CA98 behind the "Sound gap" over the CA98 letters. Only 4 midrange Speakers (the are bigger than on the CA98 - maybe they are dual cone). Maybe that's a possible reason for the diferent sounds. And of course there is a SUB woofer on the NOVUS.

The "vibrations" and tactile Feeling in the keys and the pedals is a huge difference between the CA98 and the NOVUS. It is closer to the CA97 but not in a bad way. Still it's a great and realistic Feeling.

At the end of the day two really outstanding digital pianos.

Can only bow my head KAWAI - you folks did it !!!

Alexander

Use a groundloop isolator in your audio signal path ; job done...

The NV10 has two tweeters, just like the CA98 and its siblings. They are quite cleverly hidden. If you look closely, there's a small gap just below the upper front edge and just above the upper edge of the open fallboard. This gap is covered with fabric (recessed by the thickness of the board, you have to shine in a flashlight to see the fabric) and the tweeters are behind that fabric, right in front of the leftmost and rightmost top speakers.

Here you go!



This is far from ideal, but there's plenty of space underneath for command strips or other cable management. The good news is it is fairly easy to keep things hidden because the connection jacks on the NV-10 are hidden far back on the pedal leg. The one thing I would like is a pass-through slot to the back of the NV-10, in case you'd like to route cable to something behind or on top of the piano without having to wrap the cable around the side.



Just ordered an iDefender 3.0, will see if that's "job done' indeed



I have no idea if that's true, but it wouldn't surprise me (and that's not a knock against Kawai). I wouldn't expect the action in the Novus to be hand-regulated to the degree of a GX or SK, and maybe sometime in the future I might have a tech come out and see if he can make some changes. But none of this affects my playing right now, so like you I agree it's not a big problem at all.

Ah....clever !! I thought so ... they must be some where...thx for the hint..

Thank you, Gombessa. The cables seem fairly hidden, and if one tapes them right behind (by the opening) it would be even less noticeable. A pass-through slot would indeed be optimal, but I sometimes wonder why manufacturers aren’t very fond of making things “convenient” when it comes to providing optimal accessibility/connectivity for VSTs. I mean, they know everybody’s using VSTs and still the sound systems are only optimized for the on-board sounds, and connecting cables is always a trade off: to dangle or not to dangle.
With the LX-17, for example, there’s no way of concealing the dangling cables because the connections are right at the front.

Yes - please ignore my comment