The flagship CA98 Hybrid incorporates the latest version of Kawai’s highly-regarded Soundboard Speaker System… the Premium Onkyo “Twin Drive” soundboard speaker. This unique audio technology embraces the rich, harmonic qualities of wood, channelling sound energy onto a traditional soundboard to produce a natural, organic tone.

Embracing many of the long established piano-building principles associated with an acoustic piano, the Grand Feel II, fully wooden-key keyboard utilized by the CA98 Hybrid combines realistic materials, motion and mechanism to recreate the exceptional touch of our finest concert grand pianos. 

Developed in collaboration with Onkyo, one of Japan’s leading premium audio equipment manufacturers, the CA98 is the first musical instrument to utilize specialist components designed for high-end audio reproduction. With cutting-edge technologies such as 1-bit DSD processing, dual DAC signal conversion, and Onkyo’s exclusive DIRDC circuitry, the Concert Artists’ optimized power amplifiers reproduce the Shigeru Kawai grand piano sound with stunning richness and clarity.

The CA98 Hybrid is the first instrument of its kind to feature a full-color 5” touchscreen display. Discreetly embedded within the left cheekblock, this high-resolution touchscreen allows sounds and settings to be selected from an attractive user interface simply by tapping or swiping the display with a finger.

In addition to standard USB and MIDI jacks for connecting to computers or other instruments, the CA98 Hybrid also features integrated Bluetooth® MIDI and Audio technology that allows these instruments to communicate with supported smart devices wirelessly. Once connected to a phone, tablet, or laptop, Concert Artist owners can enjoy a wide variety of exciting music-related apps that enhance their learning and playing experience, or stream audio from songs and videos directly through the instruments’ premium amplifier and speaker systems without the need for any cables.

The CA98 Hybrid is equipped with modern USB connectors that not only allow the instrument to be connected to a computer for MIDI use, but also to load and save data to USB memory devices directly. USB memory devices can also be used to play back MP3 or WAV audio files.

Supplementing the beautiful acoustic piano voices, the CA98 Hybrid also features an excellent selection of additional sounds, ranging from electric pianos and drawbar or church organs, to strings, human choirs, and synth pads, inviting musicians to add greater variety to their performances.

This exclusive feature lets anyone enjoy the thrill of playing the piano, even if you’ve never played before. 

The CA98 Hybrid comes with the first year’s lesson songs from Alfred Publishing’s Basic Piano Course 1, Premier Course 1 and Adult Course 1 built in. We’ve also included the printed music and recordings for time-tested finger exercises such as scales, arpeggios and Hanon songs. 

The CA98 Hybrid features three pedals – soft, sostenuto, and damper (with half-damper capability). The new Grand Feel Pedal System reproduces the individual weighting of each of the three pedals of the Kawai EX Concert Grand.