Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Kawai CA79 / CA99 owners club

Hello,

@kinesis, I do hope the issue will quickly be resolved to your total satisfaction.

Enjoy! And keep us posted how you're getting along with your instrument over time.

Cheers and happy playing,

HZ

Good day everyone,

Unfortunately I'm still having issues with certain keys occasionally clicking. It makes no difference if it's a black or a white key. Considering returning it as it hasn't been 30 days yet and getting a CLP-785..

I was seriously considering getting a Kawai CA79 but have now decided against it.

To all those who did write about all the issues you had with your piano, thank you. Although it may be the unpopular thing to do on an owner's club thread, I think it is incredibly important for customers to post honestly about their piano, good and bad. It saves time and trouble for potential buyers.

Two things:

1) I have lost a lot of respect for Kawai James. Although we appreciate your effort to help users with their issues, I was incredibly disappointed with how you responded to user Gianluca. Their conversation spans several posts and can be found on pages 153 and 154. In their conversation Gianluca listed his grievances with the software and how it impacted his professional experience as a performer. The response of Kawai James was to then ask for videos or pictures of Gianluca's piano in his music room amongst his other instruments. To me it sounded like feigned interest in Gianluca's use of his piano and really was an attempt to call into question perhaps his ownership of the piano. It had nothing to do with Gianluca's initial post and was a clear attempt to divert to another topic and question the legitimacy of Gianluca's claims. It was quite frankly very insulting to read.

Kawai James will probably quote several points of what I've written or that conversation to refute and attempt some semblance of innocence. Go ahead. The conversation is there and I will let others read it to make their own judgements on how disingenuous you were being. There are other instances in the 80+ pages that I've read where Kawai James was selectively dismissive of some users' complaints.

2) But really this post is for Gianluca to read. If you are reading this Gianluca, just know there is at least one person on this thread that believes you. I do believe that you are an actual owner of a CA79. I also believe that you do use that piano for actual professional performances. And finally, I do believe you when you say the listed grievances did impact you professionally. I just want you to know that your voice was heard by at least one person here, so thank you for making that post.

Thank you very much for your article :-). Liked it!

Minimum one thing about the display of the CA79/99 is out of question for me (us):

The response and "precision of navigation" together with the fact that during scrolling values can be changed by error is far from an UI for professional use - and the CA line is called Concert Artist ;-).

Galuwen

Hello Pachi,

Regarding this point:


I don't believe so. Gianluca previously posted images showing the internals of his CA79 when praising the build quality of the instrument. I have no reason to doubt that he owns this piano.

Gianluca noted that he uses his CA79 in a professional performance capacity, so I was naturally a little curious to see what kind of setting the piano is placed in. I don't believe there is anything disingenous about asking a user if they would be willing to share some pictures of their performance space.

It's unfortunate that you have decided against purchasing a CA79, however if you reconsider and have an opporunity to play-test this instrument, I hope you have a pleasant experience. If you have any questions regarding the CA79 or any other Kawai digital piano, please feel free to ask or send me a PM.

Kind regards,
James
x

Hello Foreseer,


If you have any concerns with your piano, please consult with your dealer.

Kind regards,
James
x

Hello folks,

Here is a piece of news that some of you may be interested in:


I've also updated the update thread with relevant info.

As noted in that thread, the purpose of this update is to implement 'User' Virtual Technician parameter adjustment via the touchpanel and PianoRemote app. There are some other usability improvements and bugfixes, however requests such as the ability to enter capital letters when saving songs etc. have not been implemented. I'm afraid I cannot comment on future software update plans, however we can at least say that an important feature that a lot of customers have been waiting for is now available.

Thank you your patience!

Kind regards,
James
x

Finally, a glimpse at a shimmer of hope. Let's see if the, desperately needed, usability updates also arrive. I'd expect them (if they come) in about 2 years time. I hope I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Haha Haha.

That was good one....This is KAWAI not Yamaha :-) :-).

Galuwen

@HZPiano thanks

Just wanted to ask everyone for advice since my post earlier this week...
As it was faulty on arrival do you think I should ask for a refund and re-order or wait for a Kawai technician (It's been a week and I still haven't heard anything!). The buzzing is starting to really annoy me now whilst practicing.

Hello,

@kinesis, Since you got the piano, have you been playing it intensively? Enough to get a proper idea of its condition/quality apart from the speaker buzz issue? Do you still love it as much as before, apart from the speaker buzz issue?

If everything else is fine, I'd say await the technician (see if/how you can expedite them) and get the speaker issue resolved. A refund would lose you your beloved instrument; a re-order would involve a lot of logistical hassle with the risk of getting another CA99 with the same and/or other issues, now that would be totally frustrating I reckon?!

I do not own a CA99 myself (but would probably like to!); my response here is from 'just' common sense.

Cheers and again happy resolving,

HZ

Good morning.

As soon as I saw Kawai James post I thought, good! Finally from today I will be able to use my CA79 again!

I downloaded the updates, followed the instructions, all right, the updates were installed successfully.
I also checked the changelog of the new versions: finally the bugs of the wrong sound/image have been fixed!

What a nasty surprise when I later verified that bugs are always present!
The wrong sound/picture bug is still there! Watch my video!

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/633062449

Not only that, but there is also another surprise!

Kawai owners, were you hoping to get the backlight turned off? Well, not only does it not turn off, but the screen turns black randomly even while you are using the functions on the display. See at the end of the video!

Wow !! A new bug that wasn't there before!
It is wonderful, the possibility of user voicing on 88 notes is added, but then it cannot be used peacefully because the display goes black while the parameters are changed!
Is this also part of the "doesn't do what I want it to do" behavior? Is this a deliberate behavior?

My thought is that this update wasn't even verified before it was released.

It is shameful behavior.
Everyone can make his own idea of ​​this company.

I apologize if I answer only now; I often log on to pianoworld but read posts on acoustic pianos, and your post has gone unnoticed.

I just did the software update, hoping that I could finally speak well of the CA79; what a disappointment.

A new function has been implemented, but the bugs are still present, plus there is a new bug one that does not allow you to use all functions correctly.

When I discovered this, I turned off the piano. I'm not interested in checking for other bugs. I've wasted too much time already, and Kawai isn't paying me to test his bad software.

This update was not even verified by programmers before it was released. Shame.



New potential customers should be very careful before purchasing, and read all pages of this thread carefully.

New annoyance:
I was able to get "Current"-settings working, by choosing "Power Off" then doing that once, and then powering back up again and then switching to "Current". Well, now, it ignores my settings for the piano completely. It always starts with SK-EX with default parameters. Can anyone confirm?

New annoyance:
The default SK-EX parameters have an incredibly annoying ringing around C5 with the SK-EX - definitely not present on the original acoustic! I could "turn it off" using Mellow1 and Mellow Lounge. That has now been "fixed". There is no parameter with which I can turn that off. The resonance of the upper registers physically cannot be that strong! Confirmation please...

Himmelherrgott nochamol, lass Vernunft und Einsicht regnen!

Addendum: C5 and C6 are joined by C3 and a little bit by C2 and C1. C4 is unaffected, yet. The resonance just keeps comin'

I've updated https://semestriel.framapad.org/p/kawai-ca79ca99-ui-amp-system-issues-9mga

Changes:
-> sound selected will not be loaded anymore with 'Current' or 'Power-Off'.
-> fadeout of screen during operation
-> damper bug fixed
-> missing features added

I've also included the excessive undamped resonance issue now, since I'm now unable to work around that. I love the SK-EX sound but that's gotta go!

I've also noticed, that Ambiance seems to work now. At least changing to Echo does produce an echo now.

I've noticed that the 40Hz frequency with D1# and D2# has been toned down a bit, such that the soundboard and speakers are not resonating anymore. I didn't add "fixed" since I have to test that a bit more, whether the sample has been updated or an EQ is applied.

Also a note to James: The manual in the zip folder bundled with the system update is for the LCD update. ("ca99_ca79_sys_v208_en.pdf" should be included but "ca99_ca79_lcd_v120_en.pdf" is). I'd be also nice if the resonance and the screen issue are resolved quickly. Could you please inform the programming team of this?

This has been bugging me for quite a while now. It's just so weird that no one at Kawai seems to hear this.
It's not like my hearing in the upper registers is particularly good or anything, the ringing just stands out so much.

Until today I was a big fan of Kawai but from now on I can not recommend them anymore.

I have to report that the latest update (we waited more then one year) is a slap in the face for your customers.

ARE YOU REALLY TO STUPID TO READ THE COMMENTS HERE??? We clearly wrote that for a piano in this price range a touch interface SHOULD MINIMUM WORK!!!!!

Still you change all setting whilst scrolling, no bugs fixed, now even the sound store function does work anymore.

THIS CAN'T BE TRUE....

KAWAI....I.....I.....I....

And is this strange line with the blue distortion whilst booting normal or another bug??!

Don't buy this *not nice word*.

Will speak to my dealer tomorrow to trade back.

Galuwen - can't believe it

I think that’s the loading bar you can see when connecting the PR. It, however, is both: unnecessary and ugly. The animation doesn’t even work properly…