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OUCH!

Sorry to hear that.. I was looking for a piano with a small gap between headphones and built in speakers but still have to find it.

What do you think is the best piano for speakers listening?
Maybe adding some bang and olusfen 1500 euro speakers will be the only solution.

I heard that NV5 had an edge on speaker experience over most Kawai piano anyone tried it head to head with CA99/CS11?

It's very subjective. Again I think it has to do with overall Kawai soft/"muddy" sound character rather than sound system. Some people are used to bright sounding pianos.

It was not my experience that either of the new Kawais (CA99, NV5) with the soundboard speaker system was lacking for low frequency power.

Yes , but I start playing before the startup screen fully loads, I'm impatient like that

Well neither was and is mine on CA98, and across all frequencies, even mid range give very nice vibrations. Those things are very powerful, IMO most powerful of all digital pianos, including Avant Grands, not sure about NV10, I've tested it and strangely I still think soundboard on other Kawai pianos sound better.

I tend to agree but that would also affect headphone use while in my experience it does not.

My ES8 coupled with Sennheiser HD650 which costed a third of the piano price itself return headphone experience miles away speakers experience not muddy at all. That makes me doubt about speaker quality.

Until now I think CS11 thanks to the cabinet size was the best sounding piano via built in speakers but really curious about NV5 and CA99. I guess we will need to wait store opening in order to test them side by side.

But headphones will be always different because of different sound characteristic and because sound gets to ears directly. Also "Clear" sound might just mean louder high frequencies which is the case for 90% of headphones, even expensive ones. I have never played Kawai concert grand so I'm not sure how those digitals are compared to them but I played some other grand pianos that sound similar. I'm not saying that is really the case here but I think it is worth consideration.

I see what you mean and that's a good point, thanks.

Considering what you said, speaker experience does not always need to close the gap with headphones, we just accept them to be different as long as they sound good to you.

A better comparison for speaker experience could be acoustic piano. I will keep that in mind during my next store visit.

In my case with ES8, when playing pieces very busy with notes, a lot of details are lost up to the point I have to stop playing because I can hear only a mess of notes. That does not happen with headphone or with my previous acoustic. Hope I will have better personal experience with CA99 or NV5.

Hello Anthony, welcome to the forum and thank you for your detailed post.

To answer your queries:


Yes, CA99/CA79 models distributed by Kawai America and Kawai Australia included a bench with storage (model WB-151). In Japan (and some other Asian markets), an adjustable bench without storage (WB-35) is included. In other markets (with some exceptions), a bench is not included.


Please note that Favorites do not contain any user adjustments. If you make adjustments to a sound, then set it as a Favorite, the adjustments will not be retained. The Favorites functionality is simply to provide easy access to the user's preferred factory default sounds (i.e. without adjustments).
In order to prepare adjusted versions of these sounds, and have them immediately available from a single list, please use the User sounds function.


I will need to confirm this behaviour.


Backlight off functionality is planned for a future software update.


Yes, that's correct.

Black Satin and White Satin finish instruments feature silver parts with black felt, while Rosewood finish instruments feature gold/brass parts with red felt.


I will need to check this with the product certification team.

Thank you once again for your feedback.

Kind regards,
James
x

Hello mikepis,


Yes, I believe so. Provided the only MIDI data required is for the keyboards and pedals.


I did not have a great deal of involvement in the creation of the CA99/CA79 owner's manual, however I shall pass on your feedback to the team that oversaw this documentation.


Please note that on the CA99/CA79, MIDI settings are set globally. Therefore, it is not possible to change MIDI settings "on the fly" by selecting different User memories.
By default, MIDI settings will be reset to the factory default configuration when the instrument is turned off/on, however this behaviour can be changed by selecting either the "Current" or "Power Off" Startup Settings type. As noted in my reply to Andrew above, Favorites do not store any user-defined adjustments. Nominating a sound as a "Favorite" simply adds that sound to the "Favorites" list, using the factory default settings.


Yes, the CA99/CA79 and NV5 use completely different systems, and are therefore not comparable in this respect.

Kind regards,
James
x

I like my new CA99. My biggest complaint so far is that line out volume can't be adjusted separately from master volume. I would like to combine
onboard speakers with my audio system (Genelec). Could this be fixed as software update? That would be super nice.

Would be nice but can't you control volume on your external speakers? It actually makes more sense since you would set volume on external speakers once and then regulate by piano volume slider.

That is bad idea because if I set master volume down to some nice level, and amplify low volume line out signal with some external device, it also amplify noise to unbearable level.

Hi all,
Thanks for this very valuable forum.
I'm about to buy a CA79 remotely. I was initially targetting a CA78, but I think I have a better deal for a CA79 here in France . That's why I'm interested in opinions from people having tried both CA78 and CA79.

Here is my dilemma:
- I have tested CA78 and appreciate it a lot (I didn't even notice the teflon or the "spongy feel" some mentioned)
- I haven't tested CA79, and don't know when I would be able to
- I obviously am reading from Kawai and dealers that GF3 is better than GF2 (nothing strange), but also here and there, that the GF3 touch is "lighter" than GF2 or sometimes "too light"
- It's really hard for me to get an opinion on this, especially as I think opinions mix "lighter weight" with some kind of "less friction"
- Other upgrades from CA78 to CA79 are of less importance for me. The touch is important.

To give you some background about my practice, as well as tests I've done:
- I'm upgrading from an old Roland HP1600, and in any case I'm sure I will be happy coming from an HP1600, but in the same time, CA79 is a bugdet for me, and I plan keeping the new DP for several years.
- For example if the touch of CA79 was as light as ES8's RH3, it wouldn't be acceptable for me. However, strangely enough, I found MP7SE's RH3 OK
- MP11SE's GF perfectly OK, and CA78's GF2 perfectly perfect

Your opinion/experience on GF3 is welcome.
BR,
Tibobik

Thanks Kawai James for your responses.

In addition to confirming the standby power consumption of the CA79, are you also able to pass on the following points regarding the touchscreen/user interface to the relevant teams so they can be fixed in an upcoming software update?

Anthony, I have passed on your feedback to the development team.

Kind regards,
James
x

I think it has been debunked. GF3 is just more responsive and more evenly weighted, that's why it may appear as lighter.

@ Tibobik
I've purchased my CA79 after testing it against the CA78. The GF3 action is much faster. Several members of this forum weighted the GF3 keys between 48-53 grams (one report mentioned 55 grams). In terms of weight this is what you would see as average in the acoustic grands.
I am very happy with the CA79 glad I got it (had to wait for few days to have it delivered in North East of France...).

Hello Kawai James.

Many thanks for the explanation.

One last question.

Having read your text, it seems to me that the concept of the Favorites function in CA79/99 (merely the sound storage without user-defined adjustments) is entirely different from the Favorite function in Novus NV5. If so, this is a bit misleading to me.


NV5 manual says: " The Favorite function allows the current instrument setup (sound selections, split point, reverb and effect settings, and various other panel options) to be stored to a memory and immediately recalled with a single tap. The Favorite screen displays 4 memories per page, with a maximum of 4 pages, allowing a total of 16 different Favorite memories to be stored."

MIDI settings (PC number, local control, channel number) are explicitly said to be included in the adjustments, too.

That means, I can have in total 16 different user-defined "live sets" (that name is used by Roland). Do I understand it correctly?

Thanks