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Kawai Novus NV5 Flagship Digital Piano: The best digital piano ever made?
Thanks for joining us for our review of the Novus 5 (NV5) Digital Piano. This has been a long time in the making, as these hybrid pianos have been in high demand, and limited production - so more than 3 months have passed since we ordered a floor unit for ourselves...and it FINALLY arrived.
Stu’s taken the Novus through its paces, and gives assessments on its tone, touch, ebony polish cabinet, and overall impressions. And what's further, the NV5 is undergoing the added scrutiny of potentially being a replacement for Stu's home acoustic piano. So, if you’re in the market for a digital piano where sound management is of paramount concern, and an upright piano is what makes the most sense from a space standpoint, then Kawai has several solutions...and possibly none as exciting as this.
The Novus NV5 is considered one of the great digital pianos of our day, and possibly the best response interface between player and digital piano that’s ever been brought to market - a connection that genuinely approaches what acoustic pianos have always been famous for. Although it’s positioned as the less-costly choice between it and the Novus 10 (similar approach, but meant to emulate/replace an acoustic grand piano), in many ways I consider it even more successful...the look is less ‘edgy’, which will satisfy a wider audience stylistically, and the sound projection matches a real upright even closer than an NV5 matches a real Upright.
At its core are two stand-out achievements: a full-scale, 100% replicated Millennium III Acoustic Upright Piano Action, and an all-new motherboard integrating the top tech from Kawai as well as Onkyo, a Japanaese audiophile & stereo company. Besides the NV5, it’s the only other Kawai to give true modelling in it’s “pianist” mode. Altogether, it delivers a playing experience that rivals a high quality 46" upright piano with slightly heavier action.
SOUND:
The NV5 has two different playing modes, the first is ‘piano’ or ‘pianist’ mode, which calls upon the top-level sound processor the Shigeru Kawai SK-EX Rendering engine...it’s a multi-dimensional sound processor that’s based off SK-EX sample set, with 19 parameters of additional synthesis on top. It gives the user 10 presets to toggle between, and even more fine-tuning for those who want to really get under the hood.
The sound is driven through 135 watts of power and sent to multiple speakers all over the cabinet...several below the keys, and a speaker strip along the top/back edge of the piano, to emulate sound escaping from the back of the piano. The centrepiece is the "twindrive soundboard" though: a real spruce soundboard speaker system driven by two Onkyo transducer magnet assemblies specially designed to mate to the board. The result is a bass and lower mid response which simply leaves all other digital pianos in the dust.
ACTION:
Kawai isn’t the first to integrate actions into ultra-premium digitals (Yamaha’s NU series certainly deserves credit here), but it does have the benefit of having seen the Yamaha in action for several years prior, and knew exactly where to make improvements and tweaks.
Several other blind tests and side-by-side comparisons online already have pointed out the differences in performance.
The action in many respects is the same as in its acoustic upright piano cousin; instead of wool hammers striking a string, there is a synthetic carbon hammer which crosses several beams of IR light which constitutes its hammer sensing system.
The full whippen / jack mechanism is identical to the acoustic alternative, and also includes a full upright piano damper mechanism.
In short, the Novus NV5 offers the most authentic replication of an upright piano action that exists on the market, providing pianists with a choice they simply didn’t have a few years ago: a satisfying upright piano with complete digital control, with no musical compromises.
The NV5 also offers a true pedal feel system, which gives half-pedalling, and an accurate spring tension for all three pedals.
Conclusions
In all honesty, this was the first digital piano that Stu has ever reviewed where he’s contemplated replacing his acoustic...not (as he says in the video) because it’s outright better, but because on balance, it’s a more usable instrument in a typical living space. Little to no musical compromise, and complete tone control for playing enjoyment at any time of day, regardless of what’s going on in your apartment, condo, or home.
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