I recently went through a DP purchasing process. (See the thread "Kawai vs GEM touch?") Based on my testing experience, I thought it may be interesting to some on this forum to hear about some of the differences I experienced in the Kawais.

I tested Yamahas and Rolands too, but for the Kawais, I tested the CA51, CA91, CA5, CN31 (at a dealer), and the CE200, EP2 (at a musical instrument store.) And a confession up front: I am biased towards the Kawai touch, find it very lively and realistic, and prefer it over the Yamahas, Casios, Rolands.

The CA51 and CA91 both have AWA Grand Pro II wood keys. The claim to fame for CA91 is the spruce soundboard. I did feel certain resonance coming back through my fingers when playing the CA91, and it added to the realism - quite nice. It was more noticeable when playing in the lower octaves, but not so much in the middle and higher octaves. The dealer was quoting $3000 (quite high I think, and negotiable) for the CA51, and $4000 for the CA91 (that's after manufacturer's rebate.) It's a bit questionable if that soundboard is worth the extra $1000. And of course you don't get that vibrational feedback if you're using headphones. (An aside: the feedback through the fingers is very different than the Yamaha CLP270/280 iAFC effect in which the piano gives off both original sound and a sound picked up by a built-in mic.)

There was a CA5 there - AWA Pro wood keys. I tried it quickly. It felt somewhat heavier than the AWA Pro II, and I didn't like it as much. Since it's an older model, I didn't spend more time on it.

I also quickly tried the CN31 (Kawai's entry series) . It has AHIV - Advance Hammer Action IV with AR Technology according to the website. It's not wood keys. But to my surprise, it feels very similar to the AWA Pro II and was quite nice. The dealer was more encouraging me to go with the wood keys, because he felt that with time, one will notice the subtlety and prefer the wood key actions. The quoted price of the CN31 was only $1300 though, so it's a lot less than the CA series.

A note: the CA, CN series (and the CP too, I think) are sold in special Kawai dealerships, just like the Yamahas CLPs are through "home piano" dealers, which also sell acoustic pianos. The CE200, EP2 (and the MP4, MP8) type Kawais are sold through "muscial instruments" stores, e.g. Guitar Center. It's the way the manufacturers target different products to different markets, and avoid competitions between their low and high end products.

The CE200 has AWA Pro II wood keys. It felt just ever so slightly heavier than the AWA Grand Pro II on the CA-series but barely. It's still very lively and enjoyable to play. If you look at the specs, the CE200 ($1600-$1700) is almost identical to the higher priced CA51. Differences: the CE200 has
1. smaller speakers, but still plenty for me - can't even play it at full volume.
2. no "note-off" effects, (but still has damper resonance and string resonance.)
3. a rather poor 3-letter LED display and pretty poor interface, but you can still adjust all the same things that are adjustable on the CA51 (except Note-off effect.)
Even the cabinets look similar. The CE200 (and the MP8) seems to be the high-end for the "musical instrument" market, and seems to be a slightly different packaging of the CA51. So my feeling is for the price difference, if you are considering the CA51, you may want to seek out a CE200 and give it a try. (CE200 is only available in the N. American market, and even then, it seems harder to find. E.g. the Guitar Centers here don't carry Kawais.)

The EP2 is a portable, AHIV action, with built-in speakers, in the low $1000s. The thing that struck me immediately was that the sound from the higher octaves was noticeably tinny, and doesn't blend with the lower octave sounds at all. It was an immediate big no for me.

I didn't try the MP4 or MP8 since I wanted built-in speakers, but there has been much written about them elsewhere.

Well, that's all for what it's worth. I hope this is useful for someone out there.

It great to see a post from someone who's done so much auditioning. Hope you'll stick around and contribute to others' searches.

I myself have just bought a Kawai CA51 for practising at night and in my room. Ironically I have checked out the 91 and the CN31 as well.

When I asked the guy there what was so different between the 51 and 91 he couldn't come up with a satisfactory answer that would justify the extra $1000. The action is veeeery nice on both of them (51 and 91, that is) Very realistic touch. The CN31 has a very nice action as well, and I think it could put the Yamaha 230 or 240 to shame, it's actually better IMO. But, it can't compare to CA51 or CA91. See, when you push down there is not much of a difference but the way the key comes up after you let go of it is where the real problem is. With the CN31 it comes a bit too fast, too springy and that disturbed me while playing. On the other hand on CA91 and 51 it was more realistic.

The only complaint I have about them is the sound of Grand Piano 1. It is rather bad but the Grand Piano 2 sound is very good as far as I am concerned.

I was originally planning to buy a Yamaha but the prices of those who have wooden keys are outrageous when compared with Kawais.

wisredz,

pardon my comment, but there are no Yamaha CLP or CVP consoles with wooden keys, only cosmetic wood inserts on the forward sides of the WHITE keys in the CLP280/CVP309. Still the same folded-pretzel GH3 action, nothing remotely resembling the one-piece wood-lever action of an acoustic like the Kawai CAs have.

Don't mean to depreciate the CA51, but the 91 not only has the wooden soundboard: it also has 80 sounds instead of 40, key-off samples, 192 polyphony instead of 96, and 110-watt amplification instead of 80. That's apart from the demo tunes, bigger recorder, etc...

Regards,

Claude

Well yes, my review was a bit harsh on 91, at least seemed to be, I would've liked to get that one actually. I should have said, nothing that could justify the extra price for my intentions. It won't be my primary piano, since I already have an acoustic.

I'm also not very good with the model numbers for Yamahas, and sincerely apologize if I have misled someone. My personal view of Yamahas is that their products are not that good but they still ask for a lot. At least here in Turkey that's the case.

Apologies again...

I am glad that wisredz can point out the subtle difference in touch between the CN Advanced Hammer IV and the CA AWA Grand Pro II wood keys.

The Kawai Piano sounds are also not my top preference - I much prefer the Yamaha Grand piano sound. For the Kawai, I prefer the Concert Grand (1st piano sound) put at Mellow 1 setting, the Mellow Grand (3rd piano sound).

Despite the extra features of the CA91 over the CA51, I also don't find it worth the extra money in my case - it always comes down to each individual's criteria, doesn't it. BTW the CA51 does have key-off samples (a Yamaha term) - I believe Kawai refers to it as Note Release effect.

My CA-51 does have key-off samples, it's just that it's a very subtle effect at default settings. You will need to set "KeyOff Effect" (duh) to 8 or more to make it very noticeable, especially on lower notes.

apologies everyone,

I was wrong here. Yes, the CA51 does have key-off effect as one of the features included in what Kawai calls the "Virtual Technician". Plainly stated on the spec sheet...

Best,

Claude