Hello chaps,

My colleagues at Kawai America have produced a nice video featuring some of the product highlights from this year's NAMM Show.



Kind regards,
James
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Very nice indeed! NAMM always brings out the Gear Acquisition Syndrome in us all. The hybrid especially intrigues me.

DAVID

Very nicely done Looking a the ES7, I really hope there will be a big demand for a stand adapted to the VPC1. It would be absolutely perfect

Very nice. So that's how to pronounce 'kawai'.

For me the surprise was how your pronounce Diapason d'Or!

Can anyone loan me the "200K" so that I might buy the "Shigeru Kawai EX Concert Piano" as it's a little bit more than what I have in pocket at the moment?

Yes, I smiled at that line too.

Thank goodness for my 5% employee discount...

James
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Perhaps a group buy would net us a 10% discount! Who's in??

Probably if we pool all our money we could buy one. Then we could chop it up and each get a tiny piece to put on display in our house.

And, the math to get there is pretty straightforward... looks like 200 people @ $1K each would do it.

Why not just rent the piano a climate-controlled apartment somewhere and use it like a timeshare? Each person gets 1.8 days per year with it.

Well one can't play piano all day ... we could schedule 4 people per day for 7.3 days each!

Sounds like a great idea.

Another option would be for us to buy it, sample it, store the samples on a computer, ask Dewster to add some magic regarding resonances etc, rip out the action and replace it with the VPC1, put some good active speakers in the cabinet, and then finally, complain about the piano still not being perfect when we play it ...

Well, the Shigeru Kawai EX does look stunning. $200k? Not a prob, I just need to get into the oil business or sell my family for organs.

And "RX2" action on the CN34 and ES7?

Does that mean we get the action from a real Kawai RX-2 grand on these? Now THAT is what I'd call a hybrid piano!

Is there any way to find out the Kawai launch dates for each DP? I saw the CE220 caboosing-it in the video. How's the CE220 holding up when compared with newer tri-sensored DPs?

Thanks, James, that was a nice little video.

Unfortunately for me, as much as I adore the Shigeru line-up, $200k is out of my range. I do, however, smile every time I walked passed my music room and see my lovely CP209 patiently waiting for me. Think I'll go say hello right now.


edit: just for the record, even if the price of the EX is too steep, the SK III and V and both lovely instruments. I pretty much swoon whenever I get my hands on either.

disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Kawai except as a very satisfied customer

Bah. While we are talking about Shigerus I'll mention my opinion: I have played several Shegeru's including the EX but I never noticed anything significantly different from the RX line. I'm kind of a fan of Kawai acoustics but if I played one blind I couldn't tell you if it was a Shigeru or RX. It turns out that having hand-coiled strings and the other things that make SK special doesn't make a difference in how it sounds--not to me anyway. Any differences I have heard are within the spectrum of what you hear from one piano to the next within a line given differences in voicing and soundboard quality. I think the perception that they are significantly better is just the result of a lot of marketing.

I like Shigerus, but only as much as RX's of the same size. Give me a K.Kawai and have it prepped hard-core by that dude who flies over from Japan to prep each new Shegiru in its new home and I'll be happy.

Of course there is no 9' RX, so if we are going to have a full concert length, SK is our only option.