Kawai CA13

Description

Discontinued, replaced by CA15

Featuring Kawai’s highly regarded RM3 Grand wooden-key keyboard action, and stunning Progressive Harmonic Imaging sound technology, the Kawai CA13 offers an excellent introduction to Concert Artist quality at an attractive price. With modest additional features, this attractive instrument is ideally suited to piano playing purists that demand a realistic keyboard touch and highly expressive piano tone.

The sound of a grand piano

One of the most important characteristics of any piano is its sound. Bright, mellow, dark or warm, a fine piano is detailed and expressive, and inspires the performer to play with their utmost feeling and emotion.

The beautiful sound of Kawai’s hand-built EX grand piano is at the heart of the Kawai CA13, with all eighty-eight keys of this world-class instrument painstakingly recorded, analysed, and reproduced as high-fidelity digital waveforms. Recording each key individually in this way preserves the rich harmonic character of the original EX grand piano, and guarantees that the sound heard when playing any one of the CA13’s keys is a faithful representation of the acoustic source.

Yet when playing a fine piano, the tonal character of each note changes dramatically depending on the amount of pressure applied to the keyboard. Therefore, in order to capture a realistic acoustic portrait of the EX grand piano, not only is each key recorded individually, but also at various different volume levels, ranging from gentle pianissimo to thunderous fortissimo. The CA13 offers a highly detailed acoustic portrait, employing exclusive Progressive Harmonic Imaging sound technology to ensure smooth tonal transitions across the keyboard and throughout the entire dynamic range.

The touch of a grand piano

The second most important characteristic of a piano is its touch – how the keyboard responds beneath the finger tips, and the sense of connection that one feels with the instrument when playing.

Embracing many of the long-established principles associated with an acoustic piano, the Kawai CA13’s RM3 Grand keyboard action combines realistic materials, motion, and mechanism to recreate the exceptional touch of the finest concert grand pianos.

All eighty-eight black and white keys are crafted entirely from long pieces of wood, with finely textured ivory-like surfaces applied to absorb moisture and assist control. Each wooden key pivots smoothly on a central balance pin, replicating the familiar ‘seesaw’ motion of an acoustic piano action. When pressed, the back of each key triggers a grade-weighted hammer to play the  note, while additional counter-weights are also placed at the front of the bass keys, helping to lighten their heavier touch during pianissimo passages.

With over eighty years of experience in building the world’s finest acoustic pianos clearly influencing our digital piano engineers, the CA13 is guaranteed to deliver a truly remarkable playing experience that will satisfy the demands of even the most discerning pianist.

 

Other finishes:
Kawai CA13 (Rosewood).
Kawai CA13 C (Cherry)

Customer Comments and Questions

“I was going to buy locally, but found the same piano at a considerable saving via Thomann”

Hi Graham

I found your digital piano buying guide and advice very useful, as I didn’t know anything about the subject.

I visited a few local dealers and a friend who has also bought a Kawai piano recently, and decided to buy a Kawai CA13 based on all that I’d heard, seen and read in your piano guide and on the website.
I was going to buy locally, but then found the same piano available at a considerable saving via Thomann, so bought from them via their website.

We ordered the piano at 6.30 pm on Thursday 1 December, received an email the following day to say it had been despatched, and it arrived between 2&3 pm on Wednesday 7 December, in perfect condiition.  I’m very pleased with it, am starting to practice (I can’t play at all) and found your course emails very useful.

I’m also learning the clarinet, so fingers crossed I will manage both, at my advanced age!

Thanks again for your help and interest

Best regards
Daryll

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Hi Graham

I had a long session in our local Dawsons yesterday and eventually decided on the CA13 because of the excellent action and sound, and because of the simplicity of the layout (i.e., no buttons and screens). I’m ashamed to say I didn’t order from Dawsons because they couldn’t match the Thomann price (£200 cheaper), but when the price differential is so big it doesn’t really leave much option. I feel very sorry for the high-street music shops trying to compete with on-line shops. It’s difficult to see how they can survive in their current form. They do provide a very valuable service of providing instruments to try out, so perhaps the only solution is for high-street shops to be taken over by on-line shops and used just for demoing instruments. They could even make a small charge for the service to recover some of the cost. The current model doesn’t seem sustainable for much longer, and the high-street shops are just not getting the message.

Regards

Jonathan