🎹Kawai Novus NV10 vs NV5 Hybrid Digital Piano Comparison - TwinDrive, Onkyo Transducers🎹

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Greetings everyone, and welcome to another piano video here at the Merriam Pianos YouTube channel. Today we’ll be comparing the instruments from Kawai’s top of the line Novus series - the NV5 and NV10.

Both Novus pianos are premium hybrid instruments, combining fully acoustic piano actions, with the latest and most advanced digital technology. We’ve already done full individual reviews on each instrument, so please feel free to browse our channel and check those out as well.

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Piano Similarities:

The Novus NV10 originally came out in 2018, and at the time, was significant in that it was the first time Kawai incorporated their acclaimed acoustic piano action into a digital piano. This Millennium III Carbon Fibre grand action is the exact same action you’ll find in the GL, GX and even Shigeru series grand pianos. The only difference is that instead of a hammer, the digital version of the action has a sensor at the end that crosses an optical beam, which then sends the information to the sound engine.

The Novus NV5 followed in late 2019 and was met with widespread critical acclaim. The NV5 incorporates Kawai’s Millennium III upright piano action instead of the grand action. Both instruments feature an amplification system co-built by Japanese audio company Onkyo, boasting 135 watts of speaker power.

In terms of the sound engine, both instruments utilize Kawai’s SKEX Sound Rendering Engine. This is Kawai’s version of a modelled sound engine, and boasts unlimited polyphony. Beyond the rendered engine, each instrument also has Kawai’s Harmonic Imaging XL built in as well.

The connection ports themselves are the same, however the layouts are different between both instruments. Both instruments also have Bluetooth Audio, Bluetooth MIDI and the exact same control interface.

Piano Differences:

The speaker systems are an area where these pianos diverge. The NV10 features a 7 speaker system, with subwoofers. The NV5 uses a 6 speaker system, but with a solid sitka spruce twin drive soundboard system, just like in a real upright piano. Even though the wattage is the same, the presence of the sitka spruce sounding board results in a very different musical experience. It’s not really fair to say one is better than the other, but people will certainly have their own preference when playing them side-by side.

There’s a more immediate response of tone with the NV5, whereas the tone and especially treble is more spread out on the NV10. The bass especially sounds very different between these two instruments. The bass response is punchier on the NV10, but more balanced and warmer on the NV5.

As mentioned before, the action is of course also quite different, as the NV10 uses a grand action, compared to an upright action in the NV5. The same differences you would find when comparing the actions of an acoustic grand piano and acoustic upright piano definitely apply here, with the NV5 having shallower keybed and having a slightly slower repetition speed. If this is important to you and you’re definitely set on a grand action, spending the extra money on the NV10 might be worth it for you.

Overall, I personally prefer the tone on the NV5 due to my own musical preferences as a player, however this is very subjective. The NV10 does an incredible job at recreating the experience of a 6 foot grand, which of course many folks will prefer.

Conclusions:

If you’re in the market for a hybrid piano, I sincerely hope you get a chance to try both of these instruments out side-by-side. This is definitely where the future of digital pianos is going, and Kawai has really hit it out of the park on both instruments.

Thanks for watching and long live the piano!

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