Kawai K200-ATX4 Hybrid Upright Piano

Product Overview

At 45″ high the Kawai K-200 is a piano that competes with any piano that is much taller due to Kawai’s extended key length, larger-scale design, and the award-winning Millenium III action. With an extended music rack and soft-fall fallboard, gorgeous design, and beautiful ebony polish or mahogany polish finish, this little sister is a fantastic choice for those not wanting to invest quite yet in the Kawai K-300 or K-500.

The K-200 uses Kawai’s world-famous Millennium III action which was developed by Kawai over years and years of research and design. As new materials came into the market, Kawai realized the advantage of using ‘carbon fiber’ for the action parts as it is super light, incredibly strong, and most importantly, is not affected by humidity or heat.

This means the Kawai K-200 action will maintain its stability for decades to come, no matter how much the piano is being played. Kawai upright pianos are a pleasure for tuners to work with due to the stability and design making them very easy to tune.

A larger-scale design gives you the longest string length for a piano this size. combined with the tapered solid spruce soundboard and the top-of-the-line mahogany, double felted hammerheads, and you truly have a performance piano that is built for all levels of players.

This alone would make the piano an absolute standout, but when you add Kawai’s tone engine using SK-EX Rendering to digitally reproduce the Shigeru Kawai EX Concert Grand plus many other instrument sounds using Harmonic Imaging XL, you now have a full orchestra at your fingertips that bring the playing experience to a new level.

With onboard Bluetooth MIDI, you can now connect your iPad, tablet, or Smartphone wirelessly to use hundreds of apps like GarageBand, Kawai’s Virtual technician which allows you to customize the piano sound to your own personal taste, and many, many other recording and educational apps.

Bluetooth audio allows you to stream your favorite music to the piano and play along with the band’! Want to really create a ‘live’ sound? Then use the audio output on the K200-ATX4 to hook directly to your own powered speakers or sound system. You will really feel like you’re at a live performance right in your own room!

All of these features can also be enjoyed by using headphones. Just push a lever to block the acoustic sound from playing, plug a set of headphones into the headphone jacks, and experience how authentic the sound is and how much fun you can have experimenting with all the features!

Visit your nearest showroom and try for yourself this new piano. The Kawai K200-ATX4 is a piano that is a must for those living in a condo or environment where you need to be able to practice quietly without sacrificing the benefits of an acoustic piano!

Notable Features

• 45″ K-200 Professional Upright Piano with NEOTEX™ Key Surfaces
• SK-EX Rendering Piano Sound Engine with Multi-Channel Sampling
• Modern 5” LCD Touchscreen Display
• Integrated Bluetooth MIDI and Audio wireless technology
• Flexible Virtual Technician Function with 19 Adjustable Parameters
• 256 Polyphony (max.)

Action

When you have a company like Kawai, where all they do is build acoustic and digital pianos 24/7 then you know they are going to do a fantastic job as all of their time is spent in perfecting new technologies, designs, and materials to make the piano even better.

Wood that is exposed to humidity impacts the action’s integrity, so Kawai incorporated ABS Stryan, a much more stable material than wood, into the moving parts of the action more than 40 years ago. This eliminates any stickiness or sluggishness that is due to swelling and shrinking in wooden parts.

Then, in 2004, Kawai built on this technology by introducing the Millennium III action which now uses a combination of ABS and carbon fiber!

Neither heat nor humidity affect the extremely light and strong carbon fiber. Because of these properties, you will see carbon fiber used in everything from sports equipment to bridges, to airplanes, and even race cars and bicycles. For years of top-notch performance that provide strength and quickness, the Millennium III action is the right choice.

Tone

When talking about the tone of a piano, there are five key components that come into play; the hammers, the strings, the bridges, the soundboard, and the cabinet. Any change to even one of these elements affects the synergy of the group, and will greatly affect the deep, clear, rich tone that is pleasing to a musician.

Kawai utilizes the best materials and technology, along with some of the best craftsmanship in the industry, to create an instrument that produces an incredibly rich and deep tone with an array of satisfying tones that ranges across the full sound spectrum.

Hammers

Hammers using premium double felt that are t-fastened to a mahogany core ensure the hammer’s shape, as well as the point at which the hammer strikes the strings, will be maintained for many years.

Strings

To guarantee that the strings will transfer as much of their energy to the bridge and then the soundboard, Kawai uses the highest quality steel, and ensures that the strings are properly wound.

Soundboard

The soundboard is the heart of every piano, and it’s the soundboard that projects the frequencies that are transmitted by the string vibrations. Spruce provides the best material for a soundboard, and the best spruce has very tight and straight grains. As the grains get tighter and straighter, the soundboard resonates better as the vibrations can more easily move back and forth through the wood. Kawai using the finest sources of spruce are like your TV having the highest DPI; clearer, richer sounds, and pictures.

Not only does the wood affect the soundboard’s ability to resonate, but so does the shape. By tapering the shape so that it is thicker in the middle and thinner towards the edges, the soundboard has greater elasticity, again contributing to its ability to resonate and create an even richer tone.

The last aspect of the soundboard that helps improve its sound production is the tension it is put under. This creates a crown in the wood, again contributing to the overall tone of the piano. This crown is supported by full-length ribs that help to both preserve the shape over time, and to distribute the energy of the vibrations more evenly throughout the soundboard.

Cabinet

The KawaiK200-ATX4 soundboard is supported by exceptionally strong multi-layered back posts and Kawai’s proprietary “matched strength” iron plate. Using state-of-the-art CAD technology, they calibrate the strength and mass of the plate to match the scale design of each individual model. This philosophy ensures a sturdy, well-balanced back assembly that supports string tension and provides a solid foundation for outstanding tone.

The cabinet is composed of a series of different hardwoods that are coated with multiple layers of polyester, giving it a mirror-like shine that will last a lifetime.