Kawai DG30 | REVIEW | Digital Grand Piano 2021 | Impressive

UPDATE REVIEW - Jan 1, 2021 - Kawai DG30 Digital Grand Piano - The new Kawai DG30 "mini" digital grand piano is the very 1st mini digital Grand Piano from the famous Kawai piano company in their company's history. They have had much larger digital grand pianos in the past that cost significantly more money, but this is the first one that is in a compact size and in a lower price range than before. The DG30 at $7499 retail price with actual store discount selling price at under $6000 is just 34" deep which makes it one of the smallest mini grand piano out of all the major brands of digital pianos who make a digital grand piano. Only the Samick SG-120 mini grand piano is smaller at approx 32" deep. So if you have a smaller space in your home and want to fill it up with a great digital piano that has the "look" of a grand piano then the new Kawai DG30 could be the perfect instrument for you. This new model is not available for purchase directly on-line in the US, but you can purchase one at authorized Kawai piano stores across the country. I will say that the $7499 retail price of this instrument is far too high in my opinion and not realistic and I don't know why the Kawai company has such a high "list price" but personally I would not pay attention to it. It's all about what you can buy it for at a discount price in a store or on-line that really counts. The current store discount selling price for this model is $5499 (plus tax) and it was recently released a few months ago in late 2020.

KAWAI COMPANY HISTORY

Long ago and far away the Kawai Piano company was founded in Hamamatsu, Japan in 1927 which makes them nearly 100 years old. Kawai has been producing high quality acoustic grand pianos, upright pianos, and digital pianos of all types and they are exclusively a musical instrument-piano manufacturer unlike other digital piano companies such as Yamaha and Casio who produce consumer products including motorcycles, cameras, calculators, etc. The Kawai piano company has their products in over 80 countries and even produce specialty lines of acoustic pianos for the famous Steinway Piano Company. The founder of the company, Koichi Kawai, was born and lived in Hamamatsu (I have personally been there) and originally was an apprentice for a (later to be famous) neighbor of his who was a watchmaker and organ builder. My Kawai then later went to work for that neighbor's piano research & development team because that neighbor was none other than Torakusu Yamaha, the original founder of the Yamaha Piano Company. Yep...Mr Kawai and Mr Yamaha were neighbors and that's how the piano business got started in Japan. It certainly pays to have good neighbors! Mr Yamaha died in 1916, his piano company eventually went on to become world famous, and not too many years later after Mr Yamaha died, Mr Kawai started the now famous Kawai Piano Company and the rest was history as they say.

 DG30 PIANO KEY ACTION

Typically when piano companies come out with a new model like this one and it is in a small baby grand cabinet, the functions are features usually are not new and come from technology they are already using in their other models, and this is the case for the new DG30. The DG30 is using the most popular and best plastic key action that Kawai produces called the RH3 ivory-feel key action with counter-weight technology and let-off/escapement. The RH3 action moves quickly and does not require a heavy touch so that your hands and fingers will not get fatigued when playing for long periods of time. In fact, of all the major digital piano brands who make digital grand pianos, the DG30 definitely has the lightest touch overall but is certainly not too light. In fact the measurable touch-weight on middle C requires approx 58 grams of finger force to press down the key, which is very close to a real grand piano in terms of down-weight so that is a very good thing. On the lowest priced Roland, Yamaha, and Samick digital baby grands, the amount of finger force required is over 60 grams and upward to 80 grams which is still good and enjoyable to play, but would require a firmer touch. Kawai also produces a few wood key actions where the keys themselves are made of wood and are longer in length, like a real acoustic piano, but those models also cost more money. Although I would like to have seen a wood key action put in the new DG30, the plastic RH3 key action with counter-weights is plenty good enough for most people. Given that this key action has some impressive components with the grand piano style let-off function, synthetic ivory key-tops for the white keys, and a natural feel to the key movement, I think most people will really like the DG30 key action.

 DG30 PIANO SOUND

The next most important thing in any digital piano is the actual piano sound itself. The sound in the DG30 is derived from sampling technology which means recording a real acoustic grand piano and putting it in the sound-chip. This technology has been around a long time and it requires special microphones placed near and inside a real acoustic grand piano to capture the piano sound at different playing levels, velocities, and resonances and that final recorded "sample" is looped and placed in the piano sound chip within the main circuit board and what you hear then comes through the speakers of the digital piano and also through stereo headphones. The Kawai company records/samples in stereo a few different Kawai grand pianos in different sizes with noticeable and smooth tonal differences so that you can get a variety of acoustic piano tones to be used for different types of music such as classical, jazz, pop, etc. I think Kawai has done a very good job of capturing an expressive grand piano sound and it is definitely enjoyable to play with good, smooth dynamics, wide tonal range, and sustained resonances.  The maximum piano polyphony memory in that sound chip is 256 notes of polyphony which is more than enough to play even the most complex piano music so Kawai did a very good job with their piano sound chip and the way it replicates an acoustic grand piano sound.

 DG30 PEDALS

The pedal lyre pedaling system on the DG30 looks like it does on a small acoustic baby grand and is more than adequate in performance and does replicate the feeling you would get on a good acoustic piano when pressing the pedals. Kawai uses a proprietary pedal system called Grand-feel pedal system which tries to replicate a grand piano pedal playing experience where the pedal offers more resistance as you press down the damper pedal so you get the physical feeling of pressing down real pedals along with the pedaling sound experience too. The pedals include the damper-sustain pedal, sostenuto pedal (rarely used these days), and the left soft pedal to lower volume on individual notes when necessary. The damper-sustain pedal does have the "half-damper" effect which offers progressive amounts of sustain depending on how far down you press that pedal and the sustain point is also adjustable. so it is definitely a nice system.

 INSTRUMENT SOUND LIBRARY

When it comes to the available sound library on these digital piano, some brands have a lot of added instrument sounds along with the acoustic piano sounds, and the the Kawai DG30 is no exception. There is a whopping 355 total instrument sounds which you select with sound category buttons below a display screen which include a big variety of acoustic grand pianos, acoustic upright pianos, electric pianos, strings, choirs, pop, rock & jazz organs, church & pipe organs, harpsichords, mallets, bells, accordions, guitars & banjos, flutes, brass (trumpets, trombones, etc), woodwinds, reeds (saxes, oboes, clarinets, etc), synths, special effects, individual percussion, and more. Kawai has even provided 100 realistic sounding drum rhythm patterns including Rock, Jazz, Latin, Blues, Big Band, Swing, Country, etc so that you can play along with a "real" drummer which also helps with rhythm and timing in more of a fun way. I have done this kind of thing many times and I recommend it for my students. I also find that having these extra instrument sounds enhances the playing experience and musical enjoyment that a person can get out of these types of pianos. As a long time musician and piano teacher I believe that the more fun you can have playing music, the more you will want to do it. Also, who said that a "piano" should only play a piano sound? A piano really is just a "vehicle" to musical enjoyment and interaction and having a large library of exciting musical instruments (besides piano sounds) can go a long way to making your music playing experience even better than it may have otherwise been...especially for kids and I have taught thousands of them. Can these extra instruments and drum rhythms be "distracting" to the music you're playing?...maybe, but only if you let it or don't use it correctly. But it can make it so much more fun to have these things at your fingertips to make even more music than you thought possible.

 GENERAL MIDI

Beyond all these instrument sounds is the fact that this DG30 is General MIDI compatible. General MIDI is the industry recognized format by which 16-track MIDI song files can be played back. There are thousands of General MIDI song files available to purchase on the internet and some are even free of charge although those free song files may not have very good arrangements. General MIDI songs can be downloaded onto a USB flashdrive, plugged into the DG30, and then those songs will play "live" through the piano just like a player piano using the live instrument sounds built into the piano, only the keys don't physically more. The advantage to these special GM song files is that they can sound exactly like the song itself with original instruments such as the movie theme from Star Wars, a Christmas song, a popular jazz tune, a famous classical orchestral piece, a Beatles song, or whatever it is you can think of and then you can play live piano along with that song, slow the song down so you can play along at a slower speed while learning it, or even mute out one of the instrument tracks so that you can be the lead player instead of letting that recording do all the work. You can even transpose the key so that if you sing along it can be in a key that is better for your vocal range. There are a number of ways to use General MIDI song files including for educational learning purposes. General MIDI song files are not like the regular MIDI song files which can normally only play back single instruments like piano. General MIDI format plays back all the parts using the original instruments being played correctly including preset relative volume settings, EFX, and other parameters.

 RECORDING & PLAYBACK 

Beyond the General MIDI song playback system is the ability of the DG30 to record your music on 16 separate tracks recording up to 16 separate instruments one at a time and then playing them all back simultaneously so that you can hear your completed, finished "masterpiece" and arrangement! In other words, you can create your own song one instrument at a time recording each instrument on top of the other until you use up all 16 tracks using any 16 instruments from the instrument library on the piano. So let's say you want to arrange and record an orchestral recording of the "Star Wars theme...well you can do that on this instrument and record the strings, brass, woodwinds, reeds, percussion, and all other instruments and save that recording and store it on a USB flash drive. You can also save a MIDI recording as an audio file to be played on an external device. To make matter even more exciting, you can record yourself as a direct audio wav or MP3 recording and save that file to be played back later along with being able to take any audio song from your iTunes or other song library and play live on top of that famous song that you like and have your live part recorded into the song your are playing back. In other words you can be a new member of that band or orchestra and record your part in real time along into the song that is playing back and then you save your part so that you can hear yourself playing your part of that song and you instantly become a "member" of that group and are in that song...permanently if you wish, to be played back whenever you want to from a USB flashdrive! Yikes...this piano does a lot of cool stuff!

EXTRA FEATURES

It's been my experience as a long time piano teacher, musician, and advisor that most people who get these digital mini grand pianos do it primarily to focus on piano playing. Yes, there are a lot of "bells & whistles" that some of these pianos have as I have already mentioned, but if the piano playing experience is not real, then the all those bells & whistles are meaningless in my opinion. So given the fact that this new DG30 does have what it takes to be a good very "piano," then what does it offer with regard to even more of those extra "bells & whistles which can be useful depending on what you want to do with your music? Let's start with the standard features that pretty much all digital pianos have such as layering/combining 2 instrument sounds together at one time for each note played, splitting 2 different sounds with one on the left hand and one for the right hand, being able to have a 4-hand mode that digitally splits the keyboard in half so that 2 people can play the same song with the same notes coming out in the same octaves even though one person is on the left octaves and the other person is playing on the right octaves. The DG30 also has a digital metronome to help with timing so that you can "stay on track" when trying to stay with the beat and this kind of feature is very helpful and is adjustable for time and tempo. You can also transpose your music on the DG30 so that you can play the song the way it is written but hear it come out in a different key which can be helpful when someone is singing and you want the music to come out in a better vocal range. When you use these features and make your own "setting" you can then save those custom settings into 16 "user registrations" and be able to retrieve them anytime you want to without needing to create them all over again. Having 16 memories for storage is very useful, especially if you are playing live in a church, performance, or somewhere else where having instant recall of your favorite settings would be important.

VIRTUAL TECHNICIAN

I've already talked about the huge instrument sound library this piano has along with the capability of playing General MIDI song files. But there are some really cool proprietary features this piano has that I like a lot which include being able to edit and customize the acoustic piano sounds in a myriad of ways (Kawai calls this feature "Virtual Technician") such changing the touch curve, individual note voicing and changing the tonal characteristics of the piano sounds, more or less damper resonance & damper noise, string resonance, pedal sustain-decay time, individual note volume, stretch tuning range and other organic elements of the piano sound. Once you make these adjustments you can save your settings into memory to instantly recall it later. So you have a choice of playing the Kawai factory piano presets which are very good or customizing those sounds to your individual musical tastes. Kawai also has a proprietary app for iPad where you can connect your iPad to the DG30 and access all these very cool Virtual Technician features from your color touch screen. This is a much more intuitive way of using these features and will also give you quicker and more control over your piano sounds.

 CONCERT MAGIC

Other proprietary features include the Concert Magic system which allows the very beginning player, even as young as 2 years old, to get a real sense of what playing and interacting with music is really like and hearing and seeing themselves "play" the piano. The Concert Magic feature has been used in other Kawai digital piano models over the years and it's definitely one of the most fun features I have ever seen in a digital piano and it is actually useful for music educational purposes in learning rhythm & timing, getting a sense of what accompaniment does and how it sounds, and also learning finger position and hand movement. The Concert Magic feature makes a person sound waaaaaay better than they really are (and it's fun) so it is engaging and even a bit addicting which is not a bad thing because it makes you want to play the piano, especially if you don't know how to play yet, and that is good for any person at any age. Concert Magic has 176 songs built into it and you can "play" and interact with these songs in different ways depending on the mode you choose to use and many of the built-in songs are quite familiar to lots of people so you should recognize them which makes it even more fun to use. As a piano teacher I highly endorse any system that will motivate people to want to play music and keep them interested while learning different aspects of play piano while you are actually playing on the keys. Whether you are 2 or 92, using the Concert Magic feature is a very cool way to have musical fun and enjoyment.

 PIANO EDUCATION & LESSON FUNCTIONS

With regard to educational features and functions in the DG30 mini grand, Kawai has included large libraries of digitized audio music from popular piano curriculum. These song libraries include such notable titles as Alfred's Basic Piano Library Lesson Books, Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course, Alfred's Premier Piano course from their lesson books, Burmuller Etudes, Czerny Etudes, Chopin lesson book songs, and more. All you have to do is purchase the appropriate lesson/songbooks (which are easy to order on-line) and then you'll be able to use all the songs for those books that are built-in to the DG30 and be able to listen and play along with those lesson books and also be able to isolate the left and right hand of those songs independently so you can learn the left hand and right hand separately while being able to listen to and play along with those parts. You can also slow down the tempo of the lesson songs while trying to learn them and even setup the lesson song to repeat any portion of it continuously so you can practice that part alone, especially if you are having trouble playing that part. It's definitely a helpful learning course and educational system if you take advantage of it. The Alfred piano course has been popular for decades and used by piano teachers around the country, and to be able to actually hear what those lesson songs sound like and be able to play along at your desired tempo is a very good learning tool and I recommend it.

BLUETOOTH WIRELESS 

Having Bluetooth wireless connectivity seems to be a big deal these days and having it as part of a digital piano is no exception. The DG30 has both audio wireless streaming capability and MIDI wireless connectivity so that you will not need direct cables for connection to external devices such as mobile phones, tablets, or computers. Bluetooth audio wireless allows you to connect your tablet or phone to the piano wirelessley and hear your favorite music be streamed live through the speaker system of the DG30 piano. In this way you can play piano live along with your favorite song coming out of the piano speaker system and sound like you are a live part of that band or orchestra. Essentially you are using the piano speaker system to hear songs from your external digital music library. The Bluetooth wireless MIDI function allows you to connect wirelessley to your iPad or Android device (or computer) so that you can interface with music educational apps and other related apps to better learn how to play piano or to use certain apps to enhance your piano playing enjoyment. Without Bluetooth MIDI you would just connect special cable to your external device but it can be less of a hassle without cables so the Bluetooth MIDI connectivity takes care of that. This is the first time that Kawai has had both of these technologies in a digital grand piano.

STEREO HEADPHONE FEATURES

One of the big advantages of digital pianos is being able to practice in privacy by wearing stereo headphones for silent practice. This means you will be able to have a grand piano sound experience in your ears when playing the keys but no one else will hear you. This is one of the big reasons for owning a digital pianos because then you can play anytime you like even if other people in the home are sleeping, resting, watching TV, etc...you won't disturb them. For people practicing the same song over and over then hearing that repetitive song can get a little "old" after awhile for some people so wearing headphones takes care of that. Or perhaps you are a bit embarrassed when you are practicing your music and don't want others in the home to hear you...then practicing privately with headphones is a great solution to that problem and it encourages longer practice sessions as well. When it comes to using headphones for kids, make sure you get something that is not supper high quality or expensive because young kids tend to wear out or "break" headphones after a while. But for adults, the better the headphone comfort and sound quality the more enjoyable your piano playing experience will be. Kawai has added to that listening experience by including a very impressive digital  headphone feature called "spatial headphone sound" response (aka: SHS) which enhances and changes the depth of the piano sound you are listening to through stereo headphones by moving the "positioning" of the sound either more forward in your headphones or making it a wider stereo sound field left and right. You can make these changes very quickly or leave it in the normal stereo position which in many cases is all you'll need. You can use any stereo headphones for this feature although the better the headphones are, the better your piano playing experience will be.

INTERNAL SPEAKER SYSTEM

Speaking of the piano playing experience and the sound you hear, the internal speaker system of any digital piano is an important aspect of the piano sound you hear. When the internal speaker system is done properly, is powerful, and has high quality components, your listening experience will be that much better. The DG30 has two 4" speakers and two 5" speakers going through 2 amplifiers producing a total of 40 watts of power. Two of those speakers are projected out the bottom of the piano and the other two going up through the inside top of the piano in the soundboard area. The speaker system was designed and produced by the Onkyo audio company which is a well known audio company. Most digital piano companies tend to design their own speaker systems but in the case of Kawai they decided to have an actual pro audio company do the DG30 speaker system and audio circuit boards for them and the result is fairly impressive. The Onkyo sound is a good one overall but there are some shortcomings.

When it comes to digital piano internal speaker systems the quality of the audio components is just as important as quantity in the specifications. Nevertheless, I would have preferred to see a sub-woofer of some type in this model along with additional audio power and extra amplifiers especially given the retail price of $7500. Typically in this retail price range and then is discount price range, the audio power of the internal speaker system can go anywhere from a low of about 70 watts and upwards to 150 watts and more with either larger speakers and/or more amplifiers and more speakers. As an example, the new Yamaha 45" deep digital grand piano has 4 speakers but 2 of those speakers are 6" size and the audio power has 4 amplifiers producing a huge total of 184 watts of power as compared with 2 amplifiers and 40 watts of total power in the DG30. So that Yamaha model is a monster with regard to their internal speaker system as compared the the Kawai DG30. I think if Yamaha can do that with their digital grand piano which is priced at $5499 internet discount price, then Kawai could have done that too. But for most applications and a variety of room sizes the internal speaker system of the DG30 should be adequate and do the job. Also, because of the lower total wattage the DG30 has a low power consumption rated at just 20 watts which is good.

USER INTERFACE CONTROL PANEL

To keep the look of this mini baby grand cabinet as minimalistic as possible, Kawai is using a new digital OLED interface with control buttons so that you can navigate the features and functions in a more intuitive way. Other brands of digital pianos have LCD screens with buttons and some of them have color touch screens rather than using buttons at all. Kawai has color touch screens on some of their vertical upright digital piano as does Yamaha, including a couple of Yamaha digital mini grand pianos. However, OLED screens are a newer technology that makes the display screen much clearer, brighter, and easier to read so having that technology is a very nice improvement for the user. I like using the OLED display control panel and accessing the various features doesn't take long to learn. The display screen also does not have to be on all the time so it can go dark just like your personal phone & tablet devices which makes the piano look even more like a piano and less "digital."

 AUDIO & MIDI CONNECTIVITY

As far as internal and external connectivity Kawai has done a good job with that part of the piano because not only does it have the Bluetooth wireless audio and MIDI connectivity, but the DG30 also has 2 stereo headphone jacks consisting of one full size 1/4" and one 1/8" mini jack which allows for a variety of headphones to be plugged in. This piano does not have wireless Bluetooth headphone connectivity nor does any other brand or model of digital piano because of inherent latency-delay problems with that technology when using headphones and playing in real time. Other connectivity jacks include standard MIDI in & out, two 1/4" output jacks, two 1/4" input jacks. I would have preferred to see the addition of a stereo 1/8" input jacks so that you could easily connect a personal device from their 1/8" mini output jacks which many of them have, so in this day & age of digital technology that omission was not thought out very well. The DG30 also has USB output connectivity so that you can interface with an external computer or other digital device where wireless Bluetooth would not work. Finally, the DG30 has a USB flash-drive input which other digital pianos have and this is important if you want to save your song recordings or input new songs into the piano for playback such as MIDI song files or MP3 and wav audio files. Overall the connectivity features in this model are very good and physically accessible underneath the piano. It's also good to know that you can connect any external audio device and use the piano as a stereo speaker system in which to hear your favorite songs so that can be a bonus to people who do not already have a good stereo speaker system in their home.

PIANO CABINET AND DESIGN

The cabinet design and polished ebony finish of this new Kawai DG30 is actually quite attractive for its small size. The measurements of the cabinet is 58" wide x 35" high (not including music rack) x 34" deep and it weighs in at 174 lbs. Due to its small size and relatively light weight it is fairly easy to assemble with at least 2 people doing that job. The small size of the cabinet usually means there may be something lacking in trying to replicate the look of a real grand piano because many of these smaller size mini digital pianos either do not all 3 legs, don't have an actual wood interior, or don't have both lid opening positions short, and fully open to a taller height. The DG30 has all of these features including a short height and full height lid opening position, all three support legs, and a wooden interior. The piano also has a regular music rack with a 3 position angle adjustability along with a sliding key cover. On real acoustic grand pianos the key cover is normally a fold down type of cover most commonly called a "fallboard" which is an upgraded key cover, but the DG30 has the more traditional upright piano style key covers which pulls out and slides over the keys. However, in the world of digital pianos this sliding key cover is very common in digital grand pianos and also seen in the other brands such as Yamaha, Roland, Samick, and others. Ultimately a key cover is there to cover and protect the keys and this one in the DG30 does a very good job of that, especially considering the smaller cabinet size. I also like the attractive and realistic looking polished wood "soundboard" inside the piano and the fact that it makes it look like a real grand piano. Some brands have an all black a dark brown interior. But in this model that interior wooden board looks just like a real piano and therefore gives it much more eye appeal and authenticity in my opinion. The interior wood is then finished off with a soft black velvet rope outlining the soundboard as you can see in the photo. This mini grand piano has really nice lines, beautiful polished ebony finish just like they make in their full size acoustic grand pianos, and a matching bench. The bench is a matching basic single size bench although it does have some storage space for sheet music & books. I would have much preferred a more upgraded grand piano type adjustable bench, especially in this price range as it would have been more impressive and more practical...but I guess you can't have "everything" even though it would have looked a lot more impressive that way.

FINAL THOUGHTS

In the final analysis the bottom line is this: I believe the new Kawai DG30 is a worthy competitor to the other big piano brands with digital grand pianos and with this model being one of the smallest along with being especially attractive, it will look great in any home and with almost any décor. It's good to be aware that as of now this new model only comes in polished ebony and no other color or finish. The features and functions in the DG30 are plentiful and you will likely never run out of fun and exciting musical things that you can do on this piano. But most of all it is an impressive mini baby grand for focusing on the "piano playing experience" with a responsive quick moving piano key action, realistic dynamic piano sound, and enjoyable pedaling that will do the things you need it to do. The only thing I wish were different is for the internal speaker system to have been somewhat more powerful with higher wattage with more speakers & amplifiers so it could put out a fuller, richer piano sound and volume. It does a good job with what it has but for the money i would have wanted to see even more out of it in that way. Regardless, I would recommend this new model to anyone looking for this type of mini grand piano shaped instrument offering a satisfying piano playing experience and a good array of useful functions & features.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.