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It's probably more intuitive for me, as it's quite similar to how the CA97 behaved, so I'm already used to it.

I had a chance to play the NV10 this morning for about an hour. I am by no means an expert or a professional, but I thought I'd give some feedback. Keep in mind that my experience on piano has primarily been Yamaha only.

• Price. Talk to the dealer. The numbers being thrown around on the forums here are too high. I'd tell you here what the MSRP and the street price that was on the sign. I figure it's public, so why not, but some might take offense to that. I advocate for the consumer. PM me if you are interested. The dealer felt it should be priced to compete with the N2.
• The action, probably the most important. It felt good, although it didn't jump out and scream better than N2. N2 to me feels heavier, but I kind of like that. It's consistent with what I practice on at the music school, but all pianos are different. One needs to be able to adjust to all I guess.
• Sound from the speakers - it's comparable to the N2. I think some asked if it would be loud enough or if it's as good as an AvantGrand. It sounded fine to me from the speakers.
• Sustain pedal - I really like the effect. I could feel the vibration come up through my shoe and then through my body. I thought that was cool, along with the pedal sound effect, woosh.
• LCD Panel - well, it certainly has Yamaha beat there. It's pretty intuitive I think, although you could probably get overwhelmed with options. Some don't like the little box on the N2, but it's simplistic if you're into that. Just turn it on, max the reverb, and then hide it. If some are having LCD issues, check if there is an update. The dealer mentioned there have been two already. Note, this dealer was at NAMM as well. I don't know if it's there in the settings, but it might be nice if you could turn off the LCD while playing.
• Sound - it felt more bassy than the Yamaha, and the top register of notes are quite loud. I heard this when playing Waltz in A minor the high part there. I said, damn, that's loud! Perhaps that could be tweaked in the settings or use of a different preset. There are so many, I didn't have time to test them all. In terms of sound options, the advantage obviously goes to Kawai. However, I really wouldn't know when to choose Romantic, vs Pop, vs Jazz, vs Boogie, etc. But it could be good to have those options if you need them. I lean towards simplicity. On the N2 I use Voice 1, always.
• Least important. Cosmetics. Can't say the speaker grills looked nice, but I guess one would get used to it. Why didn't Kawai put the name on the fallboard? The store had a nasty looking sticker. Also, how the fallboard aligns with the back of the keys. When you pressed a key, you would see the non white part of the key, the wooden gap. It was pretty noticeable, something I would expect to see when the fallboard was off, but not on.

I'd say check both the AvantGrand Series and NV10 and decide. Both are great instruments and it's going to come down to what is more important to you. The NV10 certainly has better and more modern technology, but I can't say if the action is any better - I'm certainly no action expert. If you're into all the technology options, then the NV10 might be better considering how it's priced. It might be worth the extra money. If it had been 12K street, I'd say probably not. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how Yamaha responds and what the future of the hybrid market will be.

The highlight of the trip was I got a "That was beautiful" from a customer in the store. I was playing a simple sonatina, Clementi Op 36, No 1 - Andante. Perhaps credit should go to Kawai on that, for it to sound good and get praise from a customer

Enjoy your NV10s Jobert and Gobmessa! I expect you to show them off in the recital ;0

Awesome, thanks for posting your impressions! Seems a lot of it is consistent with what others have said (allowing for personal variation and preferences).

I think Kawai name IS on some kind of laminated foil on the fallboard. That sticker is a protective film to keep the reflective lettering from tarnishing from fingerprints while in the shop. All of their acoustic pianos have the same film over the name, even (especially) the Shigerus.

Oh, haha. It looked like a sticker

bSharp, your post confirmed everything I encountered today. I played the NV10 for probably around an hour.

What I don't understand, why don't these companies test drive the piano on a handful of pianists and ask for their input. I would love to be a consultant.

It seems that the criticisms I have are shared with others. I was reluctant to mention the brightness of the top octave since it could have been the room itself, but now it seems it's f*cking bright.

I'm finishing my second glass of red wine. Cheers.

Francis Martin, I'm confused.

You started a post with ... As a private amateur pianist ... though when I look at your profile I see, Professional pianist.

Which is it?

That's actually kind of interesting. I assume the brighter top octaves are shared with other Kawai DPs (especially the CA-78/98 which share the same sound engine as the NV-10)? Or is it just something to do with the NV-10's amplification?

This reminds me of a related anecdote:

When I was shopping for a first home DP (after many years hiatus) I tried a bunch of other brands Rolands/Korgs/Kurzweils. And when I eventually got a Yamaha P-105, I brought it home, played it, and thought "Geez, why is the top octave SO incredibly quiet? I have to turn the volume up all the way and have the bass rattle the case just to get any real volume out of the top end!" I've since gotten used it after playing a boatload of Yamaha DPs, but coming from playing other brands, my reaction was that Yamaha DPs tend to be quiet in the top registers.

Nowadays, I don't really notice the difference anymore, I think I've just subconsciously gotten used to the variation between models/brands.

BSharp, I saw that gombessa already explained about the logo "sticker". That was a nice laugh, thanks!

Strange. I actually just now went back to my piano and opened the fall board to check, and that's not how it is with my piano. The white keytop material extends about one centimeter (~0.4") beyond the felt edge of the opened fall board (the last two millimeters are beveled off). There's no way I could see the wood of the key sticks even when pressed down, unless I crouched down like Glenn Gould with back pain and purposely peeked into the gap. A quirk of the piano you tested? An improperly installed fall board? Strange indeed. (Gombessa, how is it on yours?)

Sorry, not this time. My recital piece was already recorded and submitted before I even got the Novus. But next time, I promise!

Mine is like yours, JoBert. The white and black surfaces extend a bit behind the fallboard. BUT, when you're sitting down and playing, you are at an angle where you can definitely see the natural wood color behind (especially on the black keys). Double feature below, including the infamous decal



Here's the thing. My "reference piano" for everything is a $200k 214cm Bosendorfer grand, which I'm an incredibly lucky and undeserving hack to get to plink on regularly. That piano doesn't even have the 1cm extension of the white keytops, they end exactly where the fallboard felt touches the keys (and IIRC that piano doesn't even have the felt strip on the fallboard). So I can see the natural wood even more clearly when I play on that. Also, there's no synthetic ivory surface on that piano, and it has no trouble staying grippy and comfortable after an hour or more. So I end up feeling more OK with these types of issues on a $10k hybrid

Jobert - I'm glad that issue isn't there for you. It could be the fallboard wasn't on correctly to begin with. I hope that's the case. Little flaws like that would bug me given the price.

That "sticker" looks a lot better than the one I saw

Yea, the NV10 I played today also had a piece of plastic over 'Kawai'. I assume this was protective covering to keep the brass inserts from discoloring.

That's definitely different than on mine. I cannot see the natural wood when just sitting down to play. I have to crouch into an unnatural position (and possibly use a flashlight). Here's my version (I tried to recreate your picture as well as possible):



As you can see, the wooden part is well into the shadow below/behind the felt. So I asked my wife to shine a flash light into that gap and then I was able to see a bit of wood, but still less than on your picture, and for the black key only:

I'll jump in as I only played the Kawai briefly at NAMM. I did make it a point though to go directly from the Marriott after playing the N3X to the upstairs Kawai room.

I'm not an AG owner but have played them a lot over the years and I'm very familiar on how they feel and sound. With that said, and having maybe 15 minutes between playing the Yamaha and Kawai - I can definitely say I preferred the action response of the AG over the Kawai.

The N3X had a feel that when I played linearly on Jazz tunes, Standards and Blues -- which is what I mainly do - everything felt closer to the experience I have with my piano now and the Yamaha grands I've owned in the past.

The NV-10 seemed not as responsive and more sluggish in that area. I could tell my improvising flow was slower and creative connection wasn't as sharp as on the Yamaha. I thought the Kawai fared best for more chordal playing. I do see how a more classically oriented player might prefer the feel of the NV-10.

Even though I didn't spent not all that long on the Kawai, I can usually get a handle on whether I connect with an instrument, or not, very quickly. And finally, all the bells and whistles are lost on me. I'm a player and am most concerned about the music. I'm not a tweeker or tech guy.

Ah! I think I have an idea of what's going on. There may be some variation in the positioning of the keybed against the chassis. Yours seems pretty "standard." Mine might be a few mm "forward". Here are a few angled shots of the back and front of the keys:




What I can see is that the back of my keys are about 2mm forward of the felt (something I haven't seen in a typical acoustic grand).

The front of the keys are about 2-2.5mm from the keyslip, which seems fairly standard (but I've seen bigger gaps).

Earlier I mentioned that I was getting ground loop buzzing when connecting a VST to the line-in of the NV10. I got the iFi iDefender 3.0 in today, and I'm happy to say that the buzzing is all but eliminated.

The ironic thing is that I'm not sure this is the permanent setup I want, so I might not have a real functional use for the iDefender.

My main goal is to have the easiest way to run a VST for headphones and also let my family play through the speakers when they want. Digging through settings to find "local control" isn't ideal. And of course I'd like to minimize pulling the headphone jack in/out as much as possible, for long-term reliability.

Even with the iDefender installed, once the line-in is connected, there is a perceptible "noise floor" in the NV-10's built in speakers at normal playing volume, that doesn't appear with the built in tone generator.

Again, I don't think the NV-10 has a noise gate. From my experience with PC audio equipment, this noise floor seems fairly normal?

Also, with line-in, I get the benefit of choosing whether to play Garritan CFX or SK-Rendering with minimal hassle, but to get the piano into "regular acoustic mode" my kid has to pull the headphones out, and find and enable Local Control within settings (this setting doesn't seem to be impacted by Favorites). Further, it's a pretty delicate balance of adjusting three different settings (physical line-in knob on the NV-10, software line-in level in Settings, physical volume knob) to eliminate clipping and still get appropriate volume dynamics through the headphones (though I appreciate that there are so many levels of control to fine-tune).

Instead, I'll probably run the setup I had for my MP11 - headphone output through the Macbook running CFX, local control on, and volume knob on the NV-10 set to zero. That way, I play CFX when practicing on headphones, and when anyone wants to play the piano through speakers, they just have to turn the NV-10 on and adjust the volume (and they get the built-in Pianist mode rendering by default). Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy.

It's also a bit simpler on the cable routing end, and eliminates the need to plug/unplug headphones into the NV-10 directly.

Hi Gombessa,

maybe you just can slide the whole action a few millimeters back in, like on a real acoustc grand, where you can move the whole action like a drawer. Maybe it went forward a few millimeters by transportation?

Watch this to see how to remove (and move) the action of a real grand piono https://youtu.be/xd7_g9LL9rE

Daniel

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it does indeed seem as if the gap between keys and felt is a tiny bit larger on yours. I would say that mine has about 1mm there. The front seems about the same though (I don't have an excessive gap there), so I don't think the position of the action is different. Probably a slight tolerance in the position of the fallboard or the felt.

I believe you are simply a Yamaha guy,.......great if it works for you.
I know you really dig the CP4 soundwise and actionwise.
I personally think the Kawai wooden keys ( which i own) are far ahead of Yamaha's equivalents and Nord soundwise on stage and through the FOH.......
But not for you, which shows us how very subjective everything is.... and i know you are a very good player so don't see this as critique !


I know the differences between Kawai and Yamaha grands and like them both very much !!
The N3 i like very much , but i still have to play the Novus 10.

Francis Martin, As a private amateur pianist an upgrade from a N3 to a NV10 maybe makes not so great sense, ...

I incorrectly responded to that comment. I thought you were referring to yourself as an amateur pianist, you were referring to me.

Actually, I'm a professional pianist as well. Except for a few years over 40 years ago, all of my earnings have come directly from playing the piano. Since the financial crisis of 2008 there's been less work but I've now arrived at a point in my life where I don't need to work if I don't want to.