Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Kawai CA63/93 owners: How did you decided?

Simple quiestion: Now that there are a few more CA63 and CA93's in the wild, I am at the point to make the jump myself, but am wondering, besides price, how did owners CA93 decide to upgrade to the higher model? What criteria did buyers use?

I should add: At the moment, I find myself going back and forth between the two. Cash isn't super tight at the moment but it would be nice to save some money. I would like suggestions and insight from outside-the-box to make sure I'm looking at the decision from all angles.

Hi wower,

As you know, there are several differences between the CA63 and CA93. For me the unique selling point of the CA93 (especially at this price level) is the advanced amplification and sound system (I tried many DP's over the last few Months and nothing comes close, except for the AvantGrand, albeit at a much higher price level). People tend to mention the soundboard at the back side of the CA93, but there is so much more going on: the soundboard also radiates to the front through openings (below the keyboard), effectively spreading the bass range. This works up to about 180Hz. From there 4 top mid-range speakers take over the range of 180Hz - 6kHz and 2 front tweeters come into action from 6kHz upwards. All-in-all this results in a much more acoustic like surround sound experience than the CA63, which 'only' has 2 tweeters and 2 woofers.

If you mainly play by headphones then this unique selling point of course is of less importance.

I agree with TADutchman. If you play without headphones most of the time, then the CA93 is a good choice. I also want to say, as an owner of the CA63, the speakers in the CA63 are very good and you can get a very dynamic sound out of it. Even though there's no soundboard in this piano I can feel the whole piano vibrating just like an acoustic. I have never played the CA93 however, but I would say that it's good enough even without soundboard.

You will be satisfied whichever you choose, as long as you choose KAWAI

...one more consideration for the KAWAI CA93 is that this DP has a unique integration of improved features for a much lower price than its predecessor CA91, which soundwise is impossible to mimic with any practical combination of stage-piano and separate amplification + loudspeakers.

What I get from this feedback is that the improved sound system was more important than the slightly improved key action. How fast can you repeat keys on this keyboard anyway? Super fast? Fast enough for advanced players? Just under piano superstar fast? Can you play softly? (I had a lot of trouble playing pianissimo on the dealer demo DPs. I found the min volume no matter how softly I pressed quite high.) What about key repetition and pianissimo in general on other keyboards?

RM3 Key action and feel (ivory) of both CA63 and CA93 have improved considerably over the previous generations, AWA grand pro I & II (which arguably are already highly acclaimed, having wooden keys and sensors attached to the hammers instead of the keys).

The key action of the CA93 can give a little better control and feeling when playing pianissimo thanks to the let-off mechanism, but this is also depending on your playing style/technique and whether you are used to playing grands and/or uprights.

About key repetition: keys can be repeated faster than I can and want to play (I'm not even trying to set a WR, a comparison with other brands in this respect is therefore irrelevant). The touch sensitivity and dynamic range with very responsive action and ultra-smooth timbre variations are state of the art i.m.h.o.

I guess the standard touch settings simply have to be adjusted to your personal preference, which probably has not been done during the dealer demo. With the CA63/CA93 this is easy to do by either manually choosing a preset or automatically analysing your ppp -> fff touch.

Thank you. That’s food for thought. I knew the subtle differences in repetition on acoustics is really only a factor when a piano masters sits down to play a very demanding piece. Sounds like the CA63/93 will perform at an acceptable for me. That's good news about the adjustable touch curves. I totally forget that was an option for moden DPs.

Hi, everybody !

I have at last tried the CA-63 in a store in Paris. The Centre Chopin. It sells the CA-63 for 2199€ (bench and headphones are included in the price)


My opinions are highly subjectives and may differ from others.

I think it's a very good instrument. I could compare with CLP-380 and CLP 370 which were in the store too. Roland HP307 wasn't there though. But I have already tried that and don't like the action that much on ths DP.

The CA-51 was not in the store, so I could not compare the evolution between the two instruments. Too bad that could have been interesting. However, I have tried CA-51 about 6 months and thought it was one of the best DP out there.

The CA-63 has a very good sound. I like it a lot. I have tried both with speakers and headphones. I definitely prefer the sound coming from the headphones. Much more profound, I can hear more things this way.

I have been playing it for an hour, but I have not heard the cracking noise.


KAWAI James : I have a question :

The sound fades out a bit too quickly in my opinion. Give it a try on a acoustic : play a note fortissimo and keep your finger pressed on the key, the sound will last at least 15 seconds. That's the way it is on my upright piano.
On Kawai CA-63, after 8 seconds it has faded out. I have compared with Yamahe CLP-370 : the Yamha lasts a bit longer. Is it possible to regulate those things ?

It can be very important when playing polyphonic music. (I'm a great fan of Bach)

The action is very good too. It almost feels like a real piano. Maybe a bit too light for me, I would have prefered harder. It might be possible to regulate those things with some buttons. I have not checked all of these. But that's quite alright the way it is.

I intend to give it another try in a few weeks, but I have to tell that my first impression was very good.

Yes it could feel harder using another touch curve, a personnal one. If you want to compare with the previous keyboard, the shop should have a CA 18, which use it.

For the note lenght, try the different piano sounds, you may find one that lasts more.

Hello worov,



I'm afraid it is not currently possible to adjust the length of decay used for the piano sound.

Kind regards,
James
x

Sieg66, the only other Kawai I could find in the store was the CL25 which I did try. Very different from CA-63.


About the decay of the sound, I have tried mainly the sound "Concert Grand 1". As sieg66 says, I'll try the others on this matter and see if there is a difference.

That's because KAWAI has been listening to customer reports/requests very well and consequently released their firmware v1.06 a.s.a.p. I trust KAWAI for giving support to us customers by also working on future firmware updates.

Just check and see that they have a history of releasing updated firmware for older models too, which was also one of the criteria for my personal buying decision of the new KAWAI CA93 (and updating the firmware by using a USB connection couldn't be simpler).

I'd kind of like getting a digital piano that didn't need firmware updates, and that was already finished, instead of a work in progress.

Snazzy

That's not available. Either you get a DP with flaws that gets some firmware updates from time to time (hopefully getting the most annoying problems fixed) or you get a DP where you have to live with the flaws. And as a side comment to you, Snazzy also Yamaha DPs have flaws...

Any DP is per definition 'work in progress' as there is a continuous quest going on: getting closer and closer to the real AP experience / responding to customer feature requests to some extent (your mileage may vary, depending on the manufacturer). Luckily, this is made possible by way of firmware updates. And effectively pushing new hardware to its limits takes some time, as you may know...

No, not "any" DP is a work in progress, but some are...I haven't needed to upgrade any of my pianos...and thankfully, Kawai has done the proper thing and fixed the issues with the instruments being discussed...still, they shouldn't have been released with those problems in the first place, if they were an actual "finished" instrument...getting rid of, or addressing problems, is not the same as adding features.

Snazzy

That's right, but in both cases a firmware update can only successfully do the trick in combination with capable hardware.

Kawai bashing, as always...

Why should Yamaha release new firmware releases for e.g. CLP-340 which have fixes included if there are no flaws?

No not bashing at all, just casual conversation and discussion...you aren't a Kawai owner by any chance, or are you just naturally defensive?

Yes, the CLP-340 wasn't quite finished either...deplorable when big companies like Yamaha and Kawai can't get it right...I don't own a CLP-340, so I wasn't aware...thanks for the info.

It's informed people like yourself that keep this great forum so interesting.


Snazzy

Nooo way, don't you recognize my nickname?

Have a great weekend (at least here it's about 2 hours prior to start the weekend, and Munich airport is the only German airport that's still open due to being in the south and not yet being reached by this big ash cloud from Iceland)!