The Kawai CA7 - My daring debut dalliance with an upright digital piano.
As always, I like to write blurbs and to procure obscure electronica, the need to improve on the digital piano sound is ever appealing and inspiring, especially when one is trapped on the guitar-crazy, isolated Isle of Wight. The thought of selling my stale stuff and replacing with something more special feels uplifting and liberating, aside from the struggle to offload my electronic luggage on the limited landmass, for more than peanuts.
I had become disillusioned with the un-merry-go-round of the same keyboards circulating the 'isle', desperately contemplating and awaiting the elusive and expensive stage piano, then having to make it sound natural through EQs and stacks of selected speakers.
I had become disillusioned with the un-merry-go-round of the same keyboards circulating the 'isle', desperately contemplating and awaiting the elusive and expensive stage piano, then having to make it sound natural through EQs and stacks of selected speakers.
The end had come, I'd never been overjoyed with stage pianos, not even the Roland RD-800. I beheld the choice between buying the island's favoured vehicle - the pimped up VW Transporter with built-in burger barbecue for £40,000, a modified fighting dog from an illegal breeder, or a £200 Kawai CA7.
Kawai has a good reputation, and I'd never experienced one before, apart from the ancient 80s school organ. I made the right choice for once and purchased the weighty wooden wench for less than any stage piano I'd bought before, the sampled sounds are much better than I'd been used to, and the keyboard feel is superbly robust.
Kawai has a good reputation, and I'd never experienced one before, apart from the ancient 80s school organ. I made the right choice for once and purchased the weighty wooden wench for less than any stage piano I'd bought before, the sampled sounds are much better than I'd been used to, and the keyboard feel is superbly robust.
The neo-retro Kawai CA7 is from 2004, and pleases my ear. It is the middle model between the CA5 and CA9. The CA7 has two punchy knee-high 13cm speakers in thick plastic cases aiming downwards, and two curious tweeters up top. The CA9 claims superiority as it has two of the same knee high speakers (but in wooden boxes), the same zingy tweeters up top, and two extra speakers in the void up top, their volume can be adjusted by the 'piano ambience' parameter, it's a digital volume control for the upper speakers. The CA5 has the same 13cm speakers as the CA7, but without the twanging tweeters. The CA9's extra speakers up top would give a more surrounding sound.
All models share the same (but differently programmed) KEP-126 sound PCB. The CA5 has 40 sounds, CA7 has 60, CA9 has 80, and each has more audio power compared to its lower model. The CA9 has an extra ten watt amplifier PCB for the additional 5x9cm speakers, but don't fret over the 'lower models'.. One can make the modest models superior using the line outputs, as I inevitably did.
Interestingly, the main amplifier PCB in the CA7 and CA9 is a mysterious digital amp using a tenacious Tripath TA2022 chip supplying a supposed 60 watts per channel output. The sound is crystal clear with crystalline zing, over-egged by the ear-level liquid-dome tweeters, like a jangling Yamaha DX7. In fact it has some excellent jangly DX7 style electric pianos, better at the higher pitches than the original FM cow
The CA5 uses a less pungent Sanyo STK401-070 amplifier chip with 45 watts per channel output, without the tweeters, a major hardware difference.
I don't mind that my CA7 weighs 68kg, as I'll be free from the endless equalisers, sizeable speakers, wretched wires and the mighty mess. Even though it's thick MDF with a fake cherry-wood veneer, I'll still buff it like my first Ford Escort Mk3. The music stand seems somewhat closer to my ageing eyes, with its hopelessly unsupportive, undulating shape, requiring an additional 'four A4 sized' back-board to support my self-printed sheet needs.
In addition to the stereo line out jack sockets, there are stereo line in jack sockets too with a level adjustment control. Useful for another audio ancillary input.
In addition to the stereo line out jack sockets, there are stereo line in jack sockets too with a level adjustment control. Useful for another audio ancillary input.
The CA stands for Concert Artist, supposedly sampled from the Kawai EX Concert Grand. It is a bright sounding piano, accentuated by those mischievous tweeters. The CA range has an alleged 96 note polyphony, halved if layered or with stereo pianos selected, sporting wooden keys (plastic coated of course, no ivory tusks had been hacked off). The graded mechanism feels like all good mechanisms must, solid sounding, nicely weighted and never flimsy, hollow or clonky. It has one of the firmest key weightings I have played, which my fingers appreciate. I like my colossal Kawai, I blame the Earth's excessively alien gravity for its weight. Don't worry about its hefty 68kg mass though, it's only 26kg on Mars, and 11kg on the Moon. The end of the world is coming so locate a muscular person with a prostate, and whilst there is still cash to pay the alpha-man with a van. The piano is easily split into the heavy upper bit, and its sturdy stand.
I'll keep my Technics P50 stage piano in case of end-times power cuts, only 10V DC is needed, a car battery and a solar panel will keep its keys in action during the collapse of civilisation.
The CA7 has ten banks of eight sounds, there are no unsavoury sounds inside. The first two banks are acoustic pianos. Unlike most average stage pianos, the piano sounds seem quite different in character, rather than just filtered variations of the same sample.
Then there's eight jolly electric pianos, eight electric organs, eight pipe organs, pads, strings, mallet instruments, vocal and the incongruous guitars.
I'll keep my Technics P50 stage piano in case of end-times power cuts, only 10V DC is needed, a car battery and a solar panel will keep its keys in action during the collapse of civilisation.
The CA7 has ten banks of eight sounds, there are no unsavoury sounds inside. The first two banks are acoustic pianos. Unlike most average stage pianos, the piano sounds seem quite different in character, rather than just filtered variations of the same sample.
Then there's eight jolly electric pianos, eight electric organs, eight pipe organs, pads, strings, mallet instruments, vocal and the incongruous guitars.
There's a cool drum machine too with one hundred rhythms and a tinkly metallic metronome with most feasible time signatures. The drum pattern selection is somewhat awkward in that the desired rhythm and its tempo must be selected whilst it's playing, using the up and down buttons, but it's not the end of the world, although that's on its way.
I attempted to perform a CA7 to CA9 sonic conversion by bypassing the tweeter's filtering capacitors and swapping the tweeters for speakers. The tweeter's high frequency filtering is done on the KEP-145 digital amp PCB, when I bypassed the 3.3uF filter capacitor things distorted, so I gave up to prevent wrecking the PCB and popping the rare Tripath TA2022 IC.
I bought a pair of 5 x 9cm 15 Watt rectangular speakers that fit up top, the same as in the CA9, keeping the twangy tweeters, locating both within the void, spaced away from the surface pointing forwards. Adding an amplifier to simulate some extra depth like a real piano, mimicking the CA9. There isn't much room to fit beefy speakers up top, owing to the keyboard cover which rolls into the void.
The amplifier chosen to drive them is (don't laugh), a modified AK-170 Chinese cheapo amp with bass and treble controls, (larger smoothing capacitor, changed blue volume LED to green and added a second, and the internals flipped to hang upside down), running on 15V, not 12V DC.
For the geeks, as a nod to the ebay mini-amp craze, I chose the tiny unbranded AK-170 as it has no miniature SMD components and doesn't whistle like the worshipped Lepy 2020A. Mine contained a TDA7057AQ amp chip, some have the TDA7266SA. A 4558 op-amp deals with the tone controls.
These amps are mis-sold as being 200W per channel, this is nonsense and I did my YouTube homework first. Twelve volts DC is suggested, but these amp ICs can take 18V maximum. By increasing the TDA7057 to 15V purportedly boosts power output from 5.3 Watts to a dizzying 8 Watts per channel, this works nicely as an ear-level sound level on my piano.
The amplifier chosen to drive them is (don't laugh), a modified AK-170 Chinese cheapo amp with bass and treble controls, (larger smoothing capacitor, changed blue volume LED to green and added a second, and the internals flipped to hang upside down), running on 15V, not 12V DC.
For the geeks, as a nod to the ebay mini-amp craze, I chose the tiny unbranded AK-170 as it has no miniature SMD components and doesn't whistle like the worshipped Lepy 2020A. Mine contained a TDA7057AQ amp chip, some have the TDA7266SA. A 4558 op-amp deals with the tone controls.
These amps are mis-sold as being 200W per channel, this is nonsense and I did my YouTube homework first. Twelve volts DC is suggested, but these amp ICs can take 18V maximum. By increasing the TDA7057 to 15V purportedly boosts power output from 5.3 Watts to a dizzying 8 Watts per channel, this works nicely as an ear-level sound level on my piano.
My AK-170 on 15V DC at full volume and maximum input consumed about 1 Amp, a 2A PSU covers all eventualities. In the end I mounted the amp under the right side of the keybed, powered by an external 15V SMPSU, with audio leads to the CA7's audio output jack sockets, all powering my new internal speakers. Now the upper speakers can be adjusted to literally lift the overall sound.
Unfortunately no resounding depth was added, just the higher end, coupled with the twangy tweeters - my built in speaker project was a sonic failure, there's not enough internal space to recreate the mid-range woody piano sound.
It's not a total loss, I disconnected the wires to the indiscreet tweeters and connected them to the 5 x 9cm speakers, which has mellowed the unnaturally crystalline highs, then plonking a pair of perfectly sized 'Pure CD-40' speakers on top, driven by the external line outputs and the attached AK-170 amp. This sounds much better, offering up-top sound. Only a low volume is needed to bring the sound upwards. As the line output level alters with the Kawai's volume slider, once the external amp is perfectly set, the balance between upper and lower speakers is maintained.
I embrace the matching wood-effect speakers on my wood-effect piano. The responsibility of owning such an immovable instrument cultivates a commitment to this creation.
Unfortunately no resounding depth was added, just the higher end, coupled with the twangy tweeters - my built in speaker project was a sonic failure, there's not enough internal space to recreate the mid-range woody piano sound.
It's not a total loss, I disconnected the wires to the indiscreet tweeters and connected them to the 5 x 9cm speakers, which has mellowed the unnaturally crystalline highs, then plonking a pair of perfectly sized 'Pure CD-40' speakers on top, driven by the external line outputs and the attached AK-170 amp. This sounds much better, offering up-top sound. Only a low volume is needed to bring the sound upwards. As the line output level alters with the Kawai's volume slider, once the external amp is perfectly set, the balance between upper and lower speakers is maintained.
I embrace the matching wood-effect speakers on my wood-effect piano. The responsibility of owning such an immovable instrument cultivates a commitment to this creation.