Kawai Novus NV12 on the way?

navindra

It looks like Kawai may have added a wooden soundboard to their flagship digital hybrid with Millennium III grand piano action.

If true, that's actually some pretty exciting news in the piano world!

pianoloverus

navindra It looks like Kawai may have added a wooden soundboard to their flagship digital hybrid with Millennium III grand piano action.

What's the purpose of the soundboard if this sound is still created digitally?

Gombessa

Exciting! My Mandarin ain't great, but I couldn't really hear if there were any facts cited in that clip?

Something I'd really love to see in terms of innovation is adding damper sensors. Maybe I'm misremembering, but if you have hammer sensors and damper sensors, you don't need to worry about key sensors or guessing when a damper is lifted or not. And since the Novus series already has the back action with weighted dampers, that would be a clear point of differentiation.

As interesting as it is, I guess that might screw with the MIDI notion of what "key on" means, and without also having key sensors you'd get some weird inputs you'd have to disambiguate if using sostenuto?

WieWaldi

pianoloverus Like the difference between CA-701 and 901. The latter one has a soundboard like an upright. The speakers stimulate the soundboard like the strings and bridge does on an acoustic.

iternabe

The video said NV12 will have a new lid that can be propped up like the grand piano. I don’t hear anything about soundboard.

navindra

iternabe Thanks for correcting a basic assumption on my part!

Hopefully the NV12 actually has some improvement in the sound realism department.

pianoloverus

WieWaldi I have no familiarity with the two models you mentioned and what they have to do with the hybrid under discussion. If the model under discussion actually has a sound board, what is the purpose? Since I assume a hybrid doesn't have strings, I don't see a purpose for a sound board which is why I asked the question and bound its purpose.

WieWaldi

pianoloverus I have no familiarity with the two models you mentioned ...

The soundboard (and cabinet) is basically the main difference between both models. And Kawai charges quite a lot of extra money for the bigger model with soundboard. As a headphone player, there is no difference. But for someone who wants to play over the built-in speakers, the bigger model has a better sound. Experts find nice names for the improved soundstage, and you read about projection and the like. I have played both of that models in a showroom and can confirm the CA-901 sounds better.

pianoloverus ... and what they have to do with the hybrid under discussion.

Kawai sells besides the NV-10 series, a lower priced NV-5, too. The NV-5 has a soundboard construction very similar to the CA-901. For the NV-10 owners it seems it was always a bummer, that the lower model (and the inferior CA-901) features a soundboard, and produces a better soundstage than the higher priced NV-10.

pianoloverus Since I assume a hybrid doesn't have strings, I don't see a purpose for a sound board which is why I asked the question and bound its purpose.

Sound over the speaker is only coming from a very small area. Call it a point sound source. If a speaker stimulates an entire sound board, the sound source becomes more like an area sound source. Making the experience more similar to a real piano.

iternabe

pianoloverus AFAIK the soundboard in these digital piano is excited by transducers - basically a special type of speaker that’s attached directly to the soundboard and, instead of moving air themselves, transmits vibration to the soundboard. Kawai gave this explanation on their website.

This mechanism, in theory, can be used with all digital pianos, not just hybrids. I suppose it is the additional cost that make transducer and soundboard not available in low end DPs. Also the soundboard in DP is usually significantly smaller than their acoustic counter part. I read that some DP only use the soundboard for mid to low registers, whereas treble is still produced by traditional speakers.

Here is back side of a Kawai showing the soundboard:

Now, the proposed NV12 video did not mention adding any soundboard. Nor does NV10S appears to have much space to allow a soundboard of good size.

WieWaldi

iternabe Nor does NV10S appears to have much space to allow a soundboard of good size.

I wonder if the bottom side of the piano would be a viable place.
Doesn't real grand produces a big pile of the sound to the bottom, too. Does it? 🤔
(Nobody says, a soundboard must be rectangle)