Kawai NV10s UK Piano Review & Buyer's Guide

Kawai Novus NV10s Features Review & Buyer's Guide

The Kawai Novus range of hybrid pianos bridge the gap between acoustic and digital instruments. By combining the keyboard of an acoustic grand with the sound of a digital piano, Kawai has produced an instrument with an authentic & expressive key touch that offers all the benefits of digital piano technology including a large choice of voices, headphone output, Bluetooth connectivity, and more.

The NV10s model is the next step in Kawai's upright hybrid piano range. Following in the footsteps of the popular NV10, the NV10s boasts a refreshed touchscreen graphical operating system and compatibility with Kawai's Piano Remote app.

01:00 What is a Hybrid Piano?

02:05 Playing - SK-EX Concert Grand
03:58 Virtual Technician
04:57 Piano Remote App
06:26 Playing - SK-EX "Romantic" Rendering
08:18 Damper Pedal Mechanism
09:08 Layer & Split Voice Modes
09:49 Piano & Strings Layer
10:37 Piano & Bass/Ride Split Keyboard
11:24 Other Useful Features
13:17 Part exchange & package deals

You can find pricing and more information about the Kawai Novus NV10s here:

Manufacturer information about the Roland FP30X

Bonners Music - Eastbourne
56 Langney Road
Eastbourne
East Sussex BN21 3JN TEL: [phone]

Bonners Piano Centre - Milton Keynes
1 Ward Road
Bletchley
Milton Keynes MK1 1JA
Tel: [phone]

Bonners Piano Centre - Reigate
46B Albert Road North,
Reigate
Surrey RH2 9EL TEL: [phone]

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[Gothenburgpiano]

I have it since June and it's fantastic instrument.

[adriverschoor]

I am always on the lookout for Tony to present a new review. I have néver been disappointed in him. He is a génius.

[vicfg]

I think the main feature of the NV10s is the keyboard action, it´s just amazing. The app, the voices, etc are great, but they are now a standard feature in every high-end hybrid or digital piano.

[RY-fert]

Wow, even through my £1 earphones, the sound was wonderfully rich! I can only imagine what it must be like in person. Way to go, Kawai! Sincerely, a future Yamaha CLP 745 in polished ebony owner. 😁

[JulesStoop]

Private Investigations! I’d almost forgotten about it 😢 Wonderful chord progression!

[rayyah.]

Thanks a lot for this informative video, by the way you play the piano beautifully! 👍

[tacitpolyphony]

It would be great if you could do a comparison of the NV10 and the NV10S!!!

[mtr-music]

I own a Kawai CN39 and im really happy that i had the big financial opportunity to buy it but its always a bit sad that really good instruments are so expensive. Id love to play on wooden keys and big speakers but thats something most people including me sadly cant afford. Instruments and especially Pianos are incredibly expensive. Great review tho. You are doing a great job explaining an instrument snd its festures to potential buyers that dont know too much about digital pianos.

[MrFunnyPenny]

Can this piano play overtones? Or, if you hold a key down silently and play another key, would the silent key sound?

[Carlosyabrudy]

I’d like one. I have a CA78 from 2019 for PX

[scottryanjohnson]

Thank you so much for your review. I have a student who is considering a Kawai Hybrid. He asked my opinion about the KV5S - and when I first looked, discovered it is based on an upright action. He plays classical and is especially interested in baroque music.

Whereas the KV10S, on a grand action - the bottom line, is the action - how long are the keys, as I know you know from your previous terrific videos, you understand how critical the length and a "favorable" fulcrum (nice and far back deep into the "teeter-totter", unlike shorter keys with where the fulcrum is so close to the back of the keys, that it makes playing deep into the keys, as one does especially in classical music (imagine Bach WTC I, preludes in D major, and C# major), that makes a huge difference. Or any context of having to do trills between white keys and black keys; again, especially when one is holding onto a note with ones thumb, forcing one to play deeper into the keys.

Are the key lengths and response (latency issues) better than the NV5S, modeled on an upright keyboard - which never seems to be an action that is as good as a good grand piano action. Can you tell me what are the key lengths on both and what are your thoughts on this aspect?

In some of your previous videos you have used "cutaways" of the action, showing the action, and compared the keylengths, and that has been very helpful. So I am trying to find out, that while I use uprights all the time, a decent grand vs. a decent upright, there seems to be no contest - especially when one is developing technique, an upright tends to be a disadvantage because of the mechanism not being as "simple" as that of the grand, which uses true gravity.

Many thanks!
Scott Johnson

[ChoBee]

What is that that first song you played? So nice!

[FlyerInSF]

Can you describe your setup for producing this video? Were the demonstrations captured with microphones or mixed in from line out?

[simonpayne]

If you play a chord and release the keys whilst holding the sustain pedal, then "silently" re-press the chord and release the sustain what happens please?

[florianbauer]

There is a big price gap between NV5S and NV10S. It is 2000-3000 euros. The keyboards are different, also the sound system. But the materials are not so different. Do you think the 2000-3000 euros difference is worth it? Why is it worth it?

[panosteve]

Damper lift simulation of key weight characteristics has long been a shortcoming in digital pianos.Hats of to Kawai if they are the first to simulate this.

[James-cnno]

Are there other sound modulation options too, such as flange, reverb, delay, etc?

[andreasrunge]

Great video! What live time could we expected of such an instrument? Maybe you can make a video on that topic in general. Electronic develops very fast. Repair parts won‘t be available for too long. How long does Kawai guarantee the availability of repair parts? Such an instrument is a high investment. If some parts (display, motherboard, sensors, amplifiers) need to be fixed but no repair parts are available the piano will be valuable scrap.

[misstangshan]

What is the music you are playing in the first demo please? I want to say Two Steps From Hell?

[eddydelrio]

Fine. But the whole purpose of *this series of instruments* is not the sound per se, rather the range of expressivity of the action (the really novel feature). For that purpose, you have selected the wrong music to demonstrate. It would be FAR better if you had a classical pianist perform concert literature on the instrument, especially DEMANDING concert literature that taxes the action to its expressive and functional limits. That's what I was hoping to observe here. I realize there is only so much one can do on a video, and ultimately the best assessment is hands-on in the retail store, but watching the etudes of Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninoff being performed on this instrument would have been a very serious demonstration attractive to those pianists that are thinking of trading in their concert or semi-concert grands for something more convenient to move and that has less demands of the size of the home.