http://kurzweil.com/product/sp6/overview/
Any body know or presume what's the keyboard action built in?

The spec sheet on Kurzweil's site says Medeli K6 hammer action.

Change of thinking at Kurz in the entry level SP.
The big news is pitch and mod wheels go upstairs making it shorter, 52.5" vs. 54.8" on the SP5.
SP5 weighs 46.3lbs. The SP6 is 27.25lbs!

And they say they've simplified the UI.
We know the sounds will be pretty good.
Looks like a decent contender vs. Casio PX-5S if they can get it on some showroom floors side by side.

Don't forget they've done 10 velocity curves, so even if you don't immediately like the K6 action, find the curves/settings and see if you can get it to play.

IMHO big amount of velocity curves worth nothing when keyboard action is rubbish.

A short video clip. Just marketing, not a demo.

https://vimeo.com/228135336

Their range is completely bewildering.

The key to Kurzweil at the moment is to find a product that combines the new German Grand sample with a decent action. Their so-called legendary "triple strike" grand is absolutely ancient and awful in my opinion. The new German Grand sounds fantastic to me though.

Even models quite high up in their hierarchy don't have the new sample. But then surprisingly the SP6 does seem to have it but only mated to an action that you would have to view with extreme suspicion. Kurzweil also sometimes apply an 'F' to their model numbers and that denotes a Fatar action (which, somewhat ironically perhaps, Kurzweil regard as an upgrade!)...sometimes it's TP100, sometimes TP40L (L meaning light). For me the TP100 is actually better than TP40L. The heavier TP40 model as fitted to Nord Piano and Dexibell S7 is better still.

They also rebadge at least one Chinese Medeli slab type, which is also badged under Alesis and other brands.

They really need to streamline their model range so it makes some sense. At the moment it's a minefield.

How much is it? I guess no internal speakers though

Don't know yet. We'd be lucky to see it $1.5 to $2.2k. It's very similar to the Forte SE.
Big question is how good (or bad) is that action?

I don't think it's going to be that expensive. The SE series is their cheaper line of DPs.

I assume you meant SP.

I see this as a higher end board than the $1,500 Artis SE, so I think it will sell at a premium to that. (Though it's also possible they could discontinue or lower the price of the Artis SE.)

SP is basically their "Stage Piano" line which is generally oriented toward preset operation. The current top SP is the $1,400 SP5-8... maybe they discontinue that, or maybe this is an additional, higher end product in that line. Either way, $1,500+ does not seem out of line for an SP that is more high end than any previous SP, something that has the Kurz piano quality not previously available in anything cheaper than the $3k Forte SE. So 'd be surprised if this went for anything under $1500. $1500-$2000 sounds about right to me (though it's not impossible it could also be a bit higher, when you look at what it offers relative to that $3k Forte SE or some other higher end competitors like Nord Electro 5HP or Korg Grandstage).

But with a Medeli action!? There'll be no takers simply on the reputation of that kind of el-cheapo out-sourcing. Fatar is one thing; worthy enough at the right price and quite good when they're at their best. But Medeli?

What's an Artis SE? About £1200 GBP. That has German Grand and a Fatar action. The SP6 has the German and Japanese Grands and string resonance (which makes a pretty big difference). So yes your price prediction is about right I would guess. But what's going on with the choice of action? I really think their approach lacks cohesion. Why bugger about with such a disparate array of out-sourced actions across their model range? It seems odd to me.

I'm guessing it may be the Medeli action that's in their KA90, which I've played. It's not a spectacular action, but I liked it more than the TP100 in the Artis. And the Medeli in the SP4-7 is a pretty decent semi-weighted action... piano plays better from that than it does from the comparably priced semi-weighted Korgs and Rolands, for example.


Also half-dampering, more fx units, bigger display. And I suspect that even the German Grand is better than in the Artis SE. The "full" GG sample set (which I believe is about 2 gb) is in the Forte (which has the 16 gb flashplay). I think the Artis SE is a 128 mb version as in the PC3A8. The SP6 with its 2 gb flashplay probably has something in between. It probably has better EPs than the Artis series as well. Though it also loses a couple of things, like the EQ knobs

Kurz definitely suffers from a convoluted product line.
But understandable given how the lineage developed and where they found success in sales.

Some new demos here - translation needed - but get to hear the SP6 sounds:

https://www.youtube.com/user/yckurzweil/search?query=sp6

Yes. Meant SP, sorry.

Thomann in Europe just added it at 1190 euros. Not bad! Big question remains how the action is...

So, how’s that and especially the keyboard? 11kg, 88 keys, 2GB samples and the main ones sound pretty good. Where’s the catch, the Medeli action? The closest competitor is PX-5S but I don’t like the sounds.

Does Medeli necessary equal to bad?

In general it does equal to cheap.

...which could suggest bad.

Here's a sideview of the K6 action. It's apparently used in several Medeli (and Medeli based) stage pianos.

http://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2691245/medeli-k6-action.html

It's a pretty bad design. Notice the sensors directly under the key? They belong under the hammer to make this a true hammer action.

Many (Yamaha, Casio...) are "pretty bad designs" in that sense then as often (but not always, like e.g. not in a Kawai) the key and hammer are linked and can't move independently.

Then it doesn't really matter where the sensors are.

Key and hammer aren't linked in Medeli's action. It just doesn't matter, because the key sensing works like a synth action.