Product: Kawai CN-3
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted
09/20/2008
at
08:20am
by
giulio
Ease of Use
:
7
Manual is clear and construction is easy.
Not too many button to press make selection of sounds and various features a little difficult. However this makes the design cleaner and in the end is a plus.
Features
:
10
Electronic
Very basic model, there is a MIDI in / MIDI out. Not too sure what can be done with this, but I was just looking fro a piano.
Body
Built quality is good.
Action
The keyboard action is the best I tried for under 1500 pounds.
Yamaha320 / 330 keys are too slow for my taste
Kawai keys are instead fast and responsive. Playing is a joy.
The only model I liked more was the Yamaha Modus...
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
7
Piano sound is not that impressive, but we are here is a subjective area. I imagine that a MIDI can be used to correct this. Can it?
You can adjust the reverb, it helps.
Organ is ok.
Harpsichord is ok.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
too early to say
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
too early to say
Overall Rating
:
10
the best available.
nice and clean design, not too many buttons and internet crap connection.
no lcd.
a fantastic keyboard, fast and realistic.
very happy for my choice.
Product: Kawai CN-3
Price Paid: USD 1800
Submitted
07/26/2007
at
05:47am
by
Emil
Ease of Use
:
9
Changing and achieving general functions is very simple with the dedicated buttons (sounds, dual mode, split mode, recorder, metronome, etc), but for special functions (like tuning) need three buttons to be pushed.
It is a good solution, that the three digits display is on only when changing any values.
Features
:
7
Polyphony:
Very interesting - I think not only for this model.
Max 96 notes but when stereo piano sound is used, the polyphony is diveded by 2, when layered with a second sound, then divided again.
So be very careful, when read specification!
Keyboard:
- 88 keys
- Hammer action, weighted (lower notes are haevier a little, higher notes are lighter). Feeling is good.
- Dynamic is very good, easy to play from piano to forte
- Keys' surface (important!) is not the best, it is too "glossy", if fingers are a little sweaty, keys can be adherent
Bulit in effects:
Average, but the quality is poor. (see next chapter)
Body (finish):
Good and nice. As solid as an upright piano. Good feeling to sit down to it and playing it.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
5
It has 27 built in sounds. I am interested in only piano, I can not rate the other sounds.
It has 6 piano sounds. 2 are very good, others not or very similar to each others.
The main (stereo) piano is very realistic in the main octaves, but the lowest and the highest is a little bit plastic.
The problem is its sound quality. It is like an undersampled mp3 music. I have not measured, but it can be noticed like an 64-96 kbps mp3 music. The sound have some noise too. It is embarrassing.
Other disappointment: the notes are recorded (sampled) from a real piano's every 4-5th notes. Others are synthetized from the sampled ones.
Built in effects (tremolo, revers, ...):
Good functions but has sound quality weakness as described above.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
No need yet.
Overall Rating
:
6
I have bought it for learning, mostly classical music and jazz.
I have been learning in music school (with acoustic piano) for two years, playing (with this model) for one year.
My view-point was to find a digital upright piano, which looks and works like an acoustic one, and playing feeling should be similar to an acoustic one. The main reason buying digital against acoustic was its weight.
I have tested several instruments in price range 1.000 - 2.500 USD:
Casio PX-100, AP-24, AP-33, AP-45
Fatar SL880 with a basic sound module
Kawai CL-20, CL-30, CN-2, CN-3
Korg SP-200, SP-300, EC-150
Kurzweil PC2*
Orla Stage Partner, CDP-21
Roland RD-170, RD-300SX, RD-700SX, HP-101, HP-102
Yamaha CLP-220, CLP-230, YDP-131, P-70, P-90, P-140
Not tested, but should: Clavia Nord*
*: these models' price are higher.
but each model had some property which did not fit for me.
After all, the main reason for choosing this model was the keyboard (action).
Pros (+):
+ keyboard actions, dinamic and speed is very good
+ nice looks, good body finishing
+ useful functions
+ easy using
+ compact (no wiring need from keyboard to sound module and to amplifier, etc..., only one power-cord necessary)
Cons (-):
- sound quality is weak
- piano samples made by real acoustic piano's every 4-5th sound
- sound module can not be expanded or changed
Before buying, I had the idea, that digital piano can be similar to an acoustic one. Nowadays, I see, good instruments starts from the price range 4.000 USD and above but never give the real acoustic and classical feeling.
Buying an instrument is always a compromise!
