We’ve got another in-depth piano review for you here today as we dive into the Kawai CA49 digital piano – the follow-up to the popular CA48.
Like the CA48 before it, the CA49 is one of the most affordable home digital pianos with 88 wooden keys and offers up a beautiful sample of the Shigeru Kawai SK-EX concert grand piano.
For folks primarily focused on great action and tone without the need for a ton of features, the CA49 is a very compelling option for the price. Let’s start with some more general information about the CA49.
Piano Background
The CA49 replaced the popular CA48 in 2020 as the base model in Kawai’s Concert Artist (CA) series. Since it was released during a time with super high levels of piano demand, it actually took us quite some time to get our hands on one.
The CA series also consists of the Kawai CA59, CA79, and CA99, all with increasing levels of sophistication. But of course as the sophistication increases, so does the price.
The CA49 is one of the top sellers in the lineup though due to the level of the key action Kawai is making available here – the Grand Feel Compact action – for an MSRP of $2,800. The only other keyboard action available for around the same price that can compete is Roland’s PHA-50 action.
As such, the CA49 occupies a pretty unique place in the broader digital piano landscape. With that little bit of context out of the way, let’s dive into the sound engine first.
Kawai CA49 Collaboration with ONKYO High-End Audio
Looking through the spec sheet on the CA49, you would be forgiven if you thought that you were actually looking at the CN29 spec sheet because many specs overlap between the two. In fact, we often describe the CA49 to our showroom customers as an upgraded CN29. since the parallels are many. At the same time, there are some crucial differences as well.
Let’s start with some similarities. Both the CA49 and CN29 have 192 notes of maximum polyphony. That’s becoming fairly standard for an instrument in this price range, with 256 notes as the highest you generally see unless you get into modeling engines.
For a breakdown of what polyphony actually means, feel free to check out our video all about polyphony on our YouTube channel.
Both the CN29 and CA49 also use Kawai’s Progressive Harmonic Imaging sound technology (PHI). This is one of their more recent sound engines, but it’s not their most complex sample-based engine as that would be the Harmonic Imaging XL engine. But the PHI engine is still a very good quality engine, and one of the best available at the price point.
The other interesting thing about most of Kawai’s recent products, including the CA49, is Kawai’s collaboration with Onkyo. Onkyo is a well-respected, high-end audio and stereo gear manufacturer out of Japan. Onkyo brings more sophisticated signal processing, speaker, and amplifier design to the table.
With that, the main motherboard on the CA49 instrument has been co-developed with Onkyo. The improved signal processing delivers a cleaner, punchier amp than what we were getting in the CA48.
Lastly, the speakers have the same power output, but the CA49 is using a 4-speaker system for better clarity than the CN29. At this point, you might be asking if it’s worth springing for the CA49 over the CN29 if you’ll be playing with headphones a lot of the time since the speakers are the only sound-related advantage, and both pianos have the spatial headphone sound headphone optimizer?
Well, the big reason is of course the action which we will get to below, along with a few other things. Now to some specifics about the sound engine.
The core of the PHI sound engine is the Shigeru Kawai SK-EX and the Kawai EX concert grand piano sample set. The EX is an older concert grand and thus serves up a less refined playing experience, while the Shigeru Kawai grand piano is widely held as one of the top concert grands currently in production.
Each piano has been sampled with 88-note individual sampling at multiple dynamic levels to produce a super honest recreation.
There are a number of other acoustic piano presets on built-in, but these two are the crown jewels, and what most people will spend most of their time playing with.
There are actually 19 sounds in total, a good chunk of which are acoustic piano patches, so this reinforces the fact that the CA49 is built for someone looking for an acoustic piano substitute.
That said, there are some electric pianos, organs, as well as a harpsichord patch, vibraphone, strings, slow strings, synth pad, and choir.
Paired with the Virtual Technician app you can take the SK-EX and EX concert grand piano sounds and modify them with quite a few parameters such as string resonance, damper resonance, key-off effect, and touch curve.
That about sums up our discussion on sound. Let’s move on to action.
Grand Feel Compact Piano Action
The CA49 features Kawai’s Grand Feel Compact action (GFC). Why do they call it compact? Well, it’s a shorter key stick, but the general configuration is very similar to what Kawai has been running in their CA series and a few other models for a while, which is their Grand Feel action (the latest version is Grand Feel III).
Grand Feel actions feature 100% wooden-key keyboard action, counterweights, grade-weighted hammers, triple sensor key detection, and ivory touch key surfaces. Where the Grand Feel III has an extended length key stick approaching that of an acoustic piano, the Grand Feel Compact has a shorter length key stick in line with the typical key stick length you’ll find in most digital piano actions.
Despite the normal key length, the GFC is a remarkably good action that really does feel a lot like an acoustic piano action. The micro-texture on the white key feels really nice, as does the matte finish on the black keys.
The key dip feels really good as it’s a bit softer on the bottom than some other digital pianos out there, specifically Roland. Roland tends to have one of the harder-feeling key beds. Either way isn’t good or bad, but rather comes down to personal preference.
The triple sensor means that you’re going to get really great accurate MIDI output and it also symbolizes the fact that this action is built to accommodate some higher-level classical playing. If you’ve got some really fast repeated sections or percussive sections, sometimes the dual sensor can throw out some wacky MIDI information and you get some odd spikes. The odds of that happening with a triple sensor are greatly reduced.
In our opinion, this is the single best action available at this price point, and more than justifies the price increase over the CN29. This action alone makes the CA49 a unique offering in the market, and it’s very popular in our showroom among high-level pianists who need a cost-effective digital practice instrument.
Piano Features & Connectivity
Let’s move on to connectivity and some of the other features on this Kawai digital piano that we haven’t discussed yet.
In terms of connections, the CA49 is a little bit light compared to what you’re going to get in some of the higher-level CA series, as well as some of the upper-tier Yamaha and Roland stuff. Since the CA49 is designed to keep the price point as low as possible while still delivering a full wooden key action, some areas are going to be sacrificed.
What we do have is two headphone jacks, USB to host, MIDI In and Out, as well as Bluetooth MIDI, but no Bluetooth audio. Please keep in mind that Bluetooth headphones are not compatible with the CA49, or any digital piano as of yet. There is no line out, so you will have to mess around with the headphone jack if you need an output.
That’s it for connectivity. Moving on to other features and there is a basic internal song recorder where you can save up to 3 songs, which can actually be a pretty handy practice aid.
There are also some popular lesson books, as well as etudes stuffed in here including some Alfred stuff, Czerny stuff, Beyer, and Burgmuller. Of course, obvious things like a metronome, transpose, and concert magic are available as well.
Also worth highlighting is that Kawai has greatly improved the control panel from the CA48 with a new and easy-to-read OLED screen. Getting around this musical instrument is much easier than before.
The CA49 is available in three different finishes from Kawai – Premium Rosewood (the most common, CA-49R), Satin Black, and Satin White which has been becoming more popular with the latest trends in interior design.
It also happens to feature Kawai’s Grand Feel Pedal System with damper, sostenuto, and soft pedals, and a new modern cabinet design with an elegant music rest which is much more robust cabinetry than what you’re getting with the CN29.
Closing Thoughts
We hope you’ve enjoyed this look at the Kawai CA49. It’s already a big favorite of ours here at Merriam Music due to the musical experience it offers for the price. In fact, we think it’s one of the best-value digital pianos on the market right now, period.
Be sure to check out the companion video if you’d like to hear how it sounds!