NV12 officially announced on 22/08/2025

AdamExe

Same for me. I liked the sound of the NV5S more and the upright action was great.

I wonder how much of an improvement the NV6 is? On paper, there doesn't seem to be that much.

Also, personally, I'm fine with the original SK-EX sample sound. The newer "competition grand" sample isn't much of a draw for me.

AdamExe

ccrobopid It has to be a tool for a pianist

I agree with this sentiment.

In my situation, the instrument I have at home is always just going to be a practicing tool. I only need to decide what areas in prepared to compromise on.

ccrobopid Is it going to make you a better pianist than a CA901, or CLP745 or even a P525 with a 300€ pair of active speakers? Add to that a real acoustic K200 or K300 if you want and you will have better tools for drilling exercises

A portable/compact DP for headphone practice plus a K200 or K300 - OK, for many that is out of reach for financial or space reasons (or noise transmission) - but the cost of that combination is a lot cheaper than the NV12. Plus the acoustic instrument can in theory be maintained for decades, and later sold if necessary. What happens if your NV12 has technical issues 5+ years down the road, when its warranty has expired? I think this what always ends up stopping me getting a hybrid…

srodrigo

CeDur NV12 is supposed to be NV10S succesor or new, 'higher' model? I remember trying NV5 vs NV10 quickly in a shop and somehow I liked smaller NV5 much more.

AdamExe Same for me. I liked the sound of the NV5S more and the upright action was great.

This seems to be the consensus. Oddly enough, I also liked the sound of the NV5s more, but I thought that the action was atrocious to my fingers, like playing through a brick or tapping on a piece of glass. I never experienced this on any piano of any sorts (acoustic or digital) before. The NV10s had the best action I've tried on almost any piano, including acoustics.

I tried a K800 and the action was good. The NV5s is supposed to have something closer to a…K200? I haven't tried those ones, but it'd be a disappointment if the action is the same as I might get a K200/300 one day if I can't fit a baby grand.

porco_rosso

The NV-5(S) is supposed to have the same action as the K200/300. But I agree - while the acoustic upright actions feel light and fluid, the NV5 feel unnecessarily heavy, stiff and mushy. I guess it could be regulated to desire. I also agree that the NV5(S) sound much better than the NV-10(S), but the latter has the best and smoothest action.

David Lai

honestly, if it weren’t for the price, I think this would be a very interesting product. Great action, audio interface, and their own tone generaator as a bonus. But the price is just unforgiving!

jenpal

David Lai, it looks really nice too and seems perfect for small rooms. I find it pricey as well here in Australia (though still much better than US prices), but Kawai Japan’s website shows it costs just 1.32 million yen (excluding tax). My wife and son are going to Japan in a couple of weeks after Korea for holiday, and I’ve been eyeing this for a while. If it fits in my wife’s bag, I might be able to persuade her to buy it (just kidding).😂

srodrigo

At this price range, I would expect manufacturers to push the onboard sounds more. It still sounds pretty much as plain as every other sampled onboard sounds. I don't think they've used more than 6 sampling layers.

Florian75

And I am concerned by the soundboard. When jumping from any 1000 to 2000kUSD digital piano to NV12, it must sound like a great improvement.
But for those who use monitoring speakers, I am afraid that we will end up closing the lid and putting our good speakers on top of it 🙁.

I have never tried NV10s or N1x at home, in a quiet environment, with the onboard speakers. But what I can see on this forum is that most of NV10s/N1x owners have their monitoring speakers. So what the point of having an hybrid so big just to use it as a midi controller…

HZPiano

jenpal If it fits in my wife’s bag

😀

It will fit in her bag alright, but surely will raise eyebrows of the gals/guys watching the airport x-ray screens.

Cheers!

jenpal

HZPiano It will fit in her bag alright, but surely will raise eyebrows of the gals/guys watching the airport x-ray screens.

Hahaha… you’re right HZ. Now I need to think of another plan. 😂

iternabe

Florian75 But what I can see on this forum is that most of NV10s/N1x owners have their monitoring speakers. So what the point of having an hybrid so big just to use it as a midi controller…

I think reason 1 is NV10s' built-in speakers are widely deemed low quality. This does raise the possibility that even if NV12's soundboard is not superb it may still sound better than NV10s.

Reason 2 is real acoustic action will make any MIDI controller housing so huge and heavy anyway. Even MP11SE with full length wood key stick is already too heavy to be portable. Chop off the back half of NV10s/NV12, and the result will be too ugly to be put anywhere in the house other than a dedicated studio.

FREIRE

I am in the process of revamping the audio system of the Kawai CN301. I can say that the stock drivers are really not that good, and because of that Kawai uses a very aggressive DSP.
I have just installed some SB Acoustics midwoofers, and even on their own they are already better than the stock ones. Today I will change the mid-high drivers to some BMR drivers, and I will share my findings in a separate post.
It is actually quite easy to dramatically improve the sound of a digital piano, I guess.
This mod came after I found that studio monitors are not the best answer for piano sound reproduction. That's why kaway and yamaha try soundboards in their aures and similare products. The sound might not be as detailed or deep but the way is produced resambles more the scale and radiaton of an actual instrument.

HZPiano

FREIRE

Really interesting!

What I'm wondering is: with these better drivers, you would then need to counteract/mitigate the "aggressive dsp" that the bad drivers needed?

If so, how do you go about that?

Or:

Do you bypass the internal audio path, for instance tapping the line outs or headphone outs and adding amplifiers of your own;
Use VSTi pianos instead of the HiXL onboard engine anyway.

Do keep us posted,

Cheers!

PS Interesting as this is, it has nothing to do with the NV12. So it would actually need a thread of its own instead of be posted here. Cheers!

FREIRE

HZPiano I will explain it better later but the internal sound feed will be the line out of the piano. It's not very important to me because I just use Modern D. The mod has new amplifieres and 4 channel digital input. So my kawai cn301 has a digital audio interface now with 4 channel. All this for less money than the Adam audio D3v I just returned. Way better sound. I this posted here because the Nv12 went with a soundboard. I understand what they are trying to achieve and that I greatly missed with the D3vs.

Pete14

Interesting, how Tony spends so much time on incidentals, like “guitar & choir,” on an instrument that should be all about the piano…..

BTW, there’s another video on “piano & strings”, and even one on “connecting to a computer,” yet, once again, this instrument should be all ‘bout that piano, and it makes me wonder why he isn’t gushing all over this instrument in the same way he did about the P-515; whence he said ‘this instrument isn’t an evolution but rather a revolution,’ and seemed genuinely amazed at how good that piano, P-515, was…..🤔

HZPiano

Pete14 Interesting, how Tony spends so much time on incidentals, like “guitar & choir,” on an instrument that should be all about the piano…..

… which is incidental itself (the NV12, that is).

☺️

jenpal

Florian75 I have never tried NV10s or N1x at home, in a quiet environment, with the onboard speakers. But what I can see on this forum is that most of NV10s/N1x owners have their monitoring speakers.

In our small room, using just the default CFX internal sound of the N1X, I don’t notice the difference between the onboard speakers vs the additional Genelec 8040B speakers. However, with the added Genelecs, it is louder and the sound seems to reach my ears sooner, probably since they’re facing me. When using VST, I much prefer the added Genelecs though.

Pete14

It has been said before, “thy hybrids are a bait” into getting customers to buy their more-affordable products…..

And this, under the notion that hybrids are no more than eye candy that’ll convey just how “advanced” a company is, but in reality what they want is for you to buy the less-shiny object, because (and this is not me talking) if “Yamaha” can build such an advanced object (that is also very shiny), then the lower-priced alternative shan’t be so bad….

But I happen to disagree, even if it’s true that Yamaha hybrids are a tad overpriced; because, especially as it refers to that beauty called the N1X, yes, it’s shiny; yes, it’s a tad overpriced; but yes, it also happens to deliver musically and then some….IMHO!

Now, this “reverse-bait-and-switch” tactic (marvel at the shiny, yet still buy the less-shiny) might actually apply to the NV-12 (I’m sorry to say); because I maintain that for an instrument that is supposed to be the holy grail of digitals, the “reviews” seem intentionally deceptive, “look here, Pete, I can play a guitar on the NV-12,” and I can’t help but be skeptical.

Why didn’t they hire Tiffanys Poon to showcase some Chopin on that there NV12? 🤔

But what do they do? an overproduced video of a hacked moonlight over a hip-hop beat, and a bunch of dancers; yes, count me in as “skeptical”…..

Florian75

jenpal Thank you jenpal for this picture, you have a very nice living room.

I would be very interested on knowing how you would compare the onboard sound and the genelec, at "loud TV volume" with the VSTs.

From your previous comment, it seems that genelec is better, but it doesn't appear to be nights and days (like it is on my Casio GP310). I would be glad if you could confirm.

Thanks

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