First let me say hi to everyone as I've just joined this forum, although been lurking for a while. My name's Dave, I'm 27 and live in Perth, Western Australia. I was a serious pianist til age 18, when I quit my music degree and stopped playing.

Anyway, my question regards the K-5 ATX (the "AnyTime" series). I only just discovered the existence of this; I'd almost settled on buying a Yamaha U1-Silent, but I like the K-5 better as a piano, and the digital functionality of the Kawai seems far superior.

BUT where are they in Australia?? Nobody has them or has heard of them. Yet I noted in the Singapore thread that they're for sale in Singapore. SO, failing a local search, I am considering buying one in Singapore and having it shipped over. Can anyone advise on the potential pitfalls of this, ie climate, warranty, shipping, tuning etc?

And does anyone know WHY the AnyTime series seems to be everywhere but Oz? I have a hazy memory of playing a silent Kawai at a conference in Sydney in about 1994...

I know it doesn't answer your question, but to comfort you we don't have them either here. I'll be shipping mine from Germany... having said that, I would read with great interest about possible pitfalls too!

Thanks Mati, that does make me feel a bit better! Although yours has to travel a much shorter distance, and all on land

Have you ordered yours yet? When does it arrive?

No, not yet unfortunately - I'm still gathering funds for this little baby, but have my heart set on this one already. I hope to be able to order around next spring, but it all depends on my financial condition. With our currency we basically earn ~4 times less than most European Union countries, which makes the Kawai price tag something around whole two years income for me. And yes, you are right - the distance from Germany is definitely shorter But it still involves having much trust and faith in distant seller and transport company.


M.

That's unfortunate. The Kawai price tag is probably a bit higher there than it is in Asia Pacific region as well, due to distance. I'm aiming to get mine about the same time as you (perhaps a month or 2 earlier), so we can compare notes

For anyone else reading, help would still be appreciated on:
* shipping the K5, from humid to dry climate
* availability in Australia

Did you try contacting Kawai Australia to ask about availability?

http://www.kawai.net.au/

All Kawai models are not sold in all markets, and it depends on demand. The AnyTime models are no longer sold in North America, for instance, because the demand is not large enough to justify the costs of getting UL or CSA approval.

The climate issue is not an issue, but warranty coverage is. If you buy a piano in Singapore, it will have no warranty in Australia. The Kawai Australia warranty is one of the longest there is, so you should definitely see if you can order one of these through the normal channels before buying one elsewhere.

Don, thanks for your advice.

I did contact Kawai Australia but they didn't reply.

It's good to know about the climate thing. Kawai & Yamaha literature over here always goes on about how their pianos are "specially seasoned for the Australian climate". As for warranty, that's good to know as well.. I'll continue my search amongst local dealers.

Which one? Darwin? Hobart? Broken Hill? Cairns? Cooma?

Good point! And no idea I found some material in this season's pianobuyer.com which said that in the 60s the Japanese had trouble exporting to the US due to the drier climate, but resolved the issue pretty quickly. So I guess the warning is more for older grey market pianos.

Anyway. Got a very nice response from Kawai Australia. They said that the Anytime series isn't normally available in Australia but they can arrange it on customer request. They've put me in touch with a dealer who can sort it out for me

Yay!

That sounds good! Hope it works out for you.

I've sort of gathered from reading here that it's not so much that the US climate is dry as that it gets really cold in many places and everyone has central heating which dries everything up. Even in the colder areas here (and I live in one of them) we don't tend to have central heating as a general thing.