Slickdeals is community-supported.  We may get paid by brands or deals, including promoted items.
Heads up, this deal has expired. Want to create a deal alert for this item?
expired Posted by iconian | Staff • Sep 2, 2022
expired Posted by iconian | Staff • Sep 2, 2022

Kawai CA49 88-Key Grand Feel Compact Digital Piano with Bench $1699 + free s/h

$1,699

$2,899

41% off
Adorama
34 Comments 7,636 Views
Visit Adorama
Good Deal
Save
Share

Community Voting

Deal Score
+7
Good Deal
Visit Adorama
Deal Details
deal [adorama.com]

$1699 + free s/h (price drops in cart)

Key Features
  • Motherboard developed in partnership with Onkyo for improved tonal clarity
  • Updated control panel layout with modern OLED graphic display
  • Chopin Walzer (1-19) lesson book
  • Tone Control setting with 8 selectable tone presets
  • Low Volume Balance function for improved touch consistency at reduce volume
  • Modern cabinet design modelled after larger Concert Artist instruments
  • Improved Shigeru Kawai grand piano sounds
  • Enhanced 'Light' Touch Curve setting for young children
What's in the box:
  • CA49 88-Key Grand Feel Compact Digital Piano (Premium Rosewood)
  • Stand (with Assembly Hardware)
  • Matching Bench
  • AC Power Adapter
  • Kawai 5 Year Limited Warranty
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Community Notes
About the Poster
deal [adorama.com]

$1699 + free s/h (price drops in cart)

Key Features
  • Motherboard developed in partnership with Onkyo for improved tonal clarity
  • Updated control panel layout with modern OLED graphic display
  • Chopin Walzer (1-19) lesson book
  • Tone Control setting with 8 selectable tone presets
  • Low Volume Balance function for improved touch consistency at reduce volume
  • Modern cabinet design modelled after larger Concert Artist instruments
  • Improved Shigeru Kawai grand piano sounds
  • Enhanced 'Light' Touch Curve setting for young children
What's in the box:
  • CA49 88-Key Grand Feel Compact Digital Piano (Premium Rosewood)
  • Stand (with Assembly Hardware)
  • Matching Bench
  • AC Power Adapter
  • Kawai 5 Year Limited Warranty

Price Intelligence

Model: Kawai CA49 88-Key Grand Feel Compact Digital Piano with Bench, Premium Rosewood

Deal History 

Sale Price
Slickdeal
  • $NaN
  • Today
Leave a Comment
To participate in the comments, please log in.

34 Comments

Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.

over 2 years ago
355 Posts
Joined Sep 2011
over 2 years ago
RobUrMoney
over 2 years ago
355 Posts
Why are people thumbing down on this? Looks like a good deal?
over 2 years ago
7,535 Posts
Joined Mar 2005
over 2 years ago
funkmasterta
over 2 years ago
7,535 Posts
Quote from RobUrMoney :
Why are people thumbing down on this? Looks like a good deal?
Wait another 2 weeks and it'll drop another $200
over 2 years ago
9,369 Posts
Joined Aug 2013
over 2 years ago
xtp
over 2 years ago
9,369 Posts
Quote from RobUrMoney :
Why are people thumbing down on this? Looks like a good deal?
I did not thumb down this deal, but this is not a good product. All of Kawai's wooden actions are unstable and causes errant outputs, because the wood and felt bushing is extremely sensitive to heat/ humidity/ compaction/ twisting over time.

It has extremely poor inter_key agreement, uneven response across the keybed.

https://forum.modartt.com/viewtopic.php?id=6886

This is generally acceptable for piano playing, but it can be a problem if you're trying to get work done (recording), and (controlling) other instruments.
Last edited by xtp September 3, 2022 at 02:01 PM.
1
over 2 years ago
7,535 Posts
Joined Mar 2005
over 2 years ago
funkmasterta
over 2 years ago
7,535 Posts
Quote from xtp :
I did not thumb down this deal, but this is not a good product. All of Kawai's wooden actions are unstable and causes errant outputs, because the wood and felt bushing is extremely sensitive to heat/ humidity/ compaction/ twisting over time.

It has extremely poor inter_key agreement, uneven response across the keybed.

https://forum.modartt.com/viewtopic.php?id=6886

This is generally acceptable for piano playing, but it can be a problem if you're trying to get work done (recording), and (controlling) other instruments.
Yamaha also has their high end wood action keys.

I won't mention Roland's "hybrid wooden" keys. I think it's just a veneer.

Wooden keys serve a different audience.

The CA series is a piano for home playing, not for studio creative sessions where you would instead use something like a Roland RD-2000 designed with plastic key actions.

If anyone doesn't want wood, the Kawai CN series is the same thing but with plastic keys.

Plastic better if you play through a computer.

Solid wood feels like the real thing.

In fact, the Kawai wood series is pretty much identical to an acoustic key mechanism. Kawai makes their own highly expensive grand pianos as well.

If this drops down to $1300, I'm going to buy 10 of them.
Last edited by funkmasterta September 3, 2022 at 05:05 PM.
over 2 years ago
9,369 Posts
Joined Aug 2013
over 2 years ago
xtp
over 2 years ago
9,369 Posts
All yamaha use wood slivers + plastic core.

Only their hybrid is an acoustic piano action which is all wood, but these are highly unreliable and has the SAME problem as all wooden actions, the Inconsistency and calibration drift occuring over time.

Wooden actions are unstable regardless of who makes them.

I would not recommend buying a wooden based action digital piano AT ANY PRICE. It is simply the wrong material to use in a digital input mechanism.
over 2 years ago
7,535 Posts
Joined Mar 2005
over 2 years ago
funkmasterta
over 2 years ago
7,535 Posts
Quote from xtp :
All yamaha use wood slivers + plastic core.

Only their hybrid is an acoustic piano action which is all wood, but these are highly unreliable and has the SAME problem as all wooden actions, the Inconsistency and calibration drift occuring over time.

Wooden actions are unstable regardless of who makes them.

I would not recommend buying a wooden based action digital piano AT ANY PRICE. It is simply the wrong material to use in a digital input mechanism.
Know your audience.

People buying these home furniture style pianos aren't hooking them up to computers. They've never heard of DAWs and will never use them in a studio setting.

And people who have DAWs would never buy this style of piano.

Wood is UNRIVALED as authentic acoustic piano action because acoustic pianos use wood keys.

Again, most consumers buying these furniture / cabinet style home pianos are using them in lieu of acoustic pianos.

Show me 1 DAW setup that uses a furniture cabinet style piano and I'll show you 999,999 setups that do not. [google.com]
Last edited by funkmasterta September 3, 2022 at 06:22 PM.
1
over 2 years ago
7,535 Posts
Joined Mar 2005
over 2 years ago
funkmasterta
over 2 years ago
7,535 Posts
Quote from xtp :
All yamaha use wood slivers + plastic core.

Yamaha Clavinova series uses wood according to Sweetwater

https://www.sweetwater.com/insync...t-for-you/

Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.

over 2 years ago
9,369 Posts
Joined Aug 2013
over 2 years ago
xtp
over 2 years ago
9,369 Posts
Quote from funkmasterta :
Wood is UNRIVALED as authentic acoustic piano action because acoustic pianos use wood keys.

[/URL]

Not true, unrivaled according to whom , the advertising ?

Wood has NEVER been a good material for actions. that's why Kawai switched to originally abs styrene (which is fancy plastic), then eventually carbon fiber.

Yamaha made a similar switch in their actions as well.

They only kept the wooden parts for hammer shank because it has a warmer tone than carbon fiber shanks, but this can be balanced with scale design.

They kept wooden key sticks primarily for aesthetics, and how the last of the old farts who still play pianos can't get over wood.

WNG actions use full carbon fiber and does away with felt bushing for an extremely precise and stable action. The latest Mason and Hamlins also use Carbon fiber shanks when they switched to WNG actions.

funkmasterta, I can tell you're not a moron, but your awareness of piano technology is too superficial, you are spouting baseless remarks. EEK!


The WOODEN actions they put into digital pianos are no more than a GIMMICK, to upsell what's essentially 10 year old obsolete technology. The electronics in modern digital pianos are slower than a raspberry pie.

Look at kawai's ca99/ novus input system, it's slow as heck, the animation isn't even smooth, the software was outsourced to a random chinese company, and full of bugs. The UI is terrible.
Last edited by xtp September 3, 2022 at 07:05 PM.
1
over 2 years ago
9,369 Posts
Joined Aug 2013
over 2 years ago
xtp
over 2 years ago
9,369 Posts
Quote from funkmasterta :
Yamaha Clavinova series uses wood according to Sweetwater

https://www.sweetwater.com/insync...t-for-you/
it does not.

Go to the clarinova 785 page,

You can see it's a plastic core.

https://usa.yamaha.com/files/24-C...&imhei=458

There's A REASON, they don't use a full wooden stick, because wood = unstable. This makes it Particularly bad for digital pianos, because digital pianos run on a Deterministic system with hard table binds between input velocity and sound.
Last edited by xtp September 3, 2022 at 07:07 PM.