🎹 Dive into the Power of the Kawai CA901 | The Digital Piano You Need to Experience 🎹

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0:00 - Video Introduction on the Kawai CA901
0:15 - Opening Playing Demo on the Kawai CA901
0:29 - Video Overview and Kawai CA99 Discussion v.s. CA901
0:54 - First Impressions of the Kawai CA901
1:56 - Piano Action Review on the Kawai CA901
3:48 - Action Playing Demo
8:46 - Piano Tone Review on the Kawai CA901
10:57 - SK-EX Competition Grand Piano Demo
13:23 - Rendering Engine Discussion
15:00 - Virtual Technician Discussion
15:50 - EX Concert Grand Piano Demo
17:14 - Kawai K60 Upright Piano Demo
18:18 - Speaker Review on the Kawai CA901
22:14 - Features Review on the Kawai CA901
26:15 - User Interface Review on the Kawai CA901
34:28 - Audio Demo Line Out v.s. Speaker Comparison

Hello! We’re back with another piano review as today we’ll be looking at Kawai’s new CA901 hybrid digital piano.

The follow-up to the successful CA99, the CA901 is the flagship model of Kawai’s vaunted Concert Artist Series.

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First Impressions
Kawai had a very tall order in trying to come up with a replacement for the CA99 as it was universally acclaimed during its production run.

While Kawai has one tier of digital pianos still above the CA series - the top-of-the-line NOVUS pianos which incorporate a genuine acoustic piano action - our first impressions with the CA901 are that Kawai has managed to bring the tone engine and speaker performance very close to what the NOVUS 5 is capable of for instance.

The acoustic experience is noticeably better than the CA99, and that’s what really jumped out at us from the start.

Piano Action
The CA901 brings back Kawai’s still relatively new Grand Feel III action. The GFIII is notable in the market for being an all-wood action, with extended-length key sticks and pivot length. A long pivot length ensures a higher level of control, and it also means the key will feel the same regardless of where you play it, which becomes very important with a more advanced repertoire.

The keybed itself and the structure of the hammer mechanism are also built to replicate the feel of a grand piano. As a result, this is an extremely durable action, built to last a long time and withstand a ton of use.

The touch curve can be widely adjusted, but out of the box, the action feels weighted slightly on the lighter side. There’s a nice texture on the keytops for a good combination of grip and glide, which is standard at this point for the price range.

Other action-related specs include escapement, counterweights and triple sensor key detection.

Piano Tone
Kawai has come out with a brand new sample set for the CA901 and CA701 which they are calling the Shigeru Kawai SK-EX competition grand. Kawai actually improved the acoustic SKEX a few years ago with a different rim structure, resulting in a more mid-heavy sound with a cleaner, clearer treble.

The original SKEX sample was based on a recording of the original SKEX, whereas this new competition sample is based on the updated SKEX concert grand.

The old sample is still included here as well, but comparing them side by side, it’s apparent that the competition grand has beefier upper partials which get more pronounced the higher you play in the range. The bass on the other hand is still quite similar.

In both cases, we’re working with a super in-depth multi-channel sample, fed through Kawai’s Rendering engine which offers a number of different preset options with different tonal configurations of the same core samples. There are also editable resonance engines, as well as their Virtual Piano Artisan function which allows you to edit 20 more sound-related parameters.

Outside of this mode, Kawai’s HIXL engine is included as well, with 96 total sounds including 3 core grand pianos and a great sample of a Kawai K-60 upright piano which happens to be one of the best upright piano samples we’ve heard on a digital piano.

Speakers
The CA99 had a great set of speakers, yet Kawai has managed to level this area up as well. We’re now working with 2 top speakers with diffusers, 2 front speakers and 2 tweeters. The highs are now much more directed towards the player, better simulating the sound of an acoustic upright piano.

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