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I didn't have the chance to try the FP-30 but I agree that the PX-S1000 was pretty stiff toward the top of the keys (as I said before).



The FP-90 I ended up with is much easier to play for me.

A fair point, in my opinion, everything I write on a publicly accessed online forum is a personal opinion.

Casio Privia Slim PX-S3000 Review

I bought the Casio Privia PX-S3000 as my summer holiday piano, along with a KORG microKEY Air 37. This Privia Slim is a new and exciting release from Casio, and happens to check every one of my holiday requirements.

It's slim and portable. It's not exactly slim and portable enough that I can pack it in my travel luggage. For that, I have the KORG (and hopefully the 4-octave LUMI solution soon). It's slim and portable enough that I can order it half way around the world from Country 1 and have it ship safely from Country 2 to Country 3. It's slim and portable enough that it's easy to find a semi-permanent home for it while being able to shift it around or stash it away at any time. It takes batteries, if ever I needed that.

It's a beautiful piece of furniture. When it's off, the surface is a minimalist and glossy piece of glass, reminiscent of a grand piano. This is important because it makes the hosts beyond happy to welcome this piano as a second guest. I also got the furniture stand which was easy to assemble, minimalistic, good looking, and rugged. I also got the 3-pedal unit which is portable but not integrated into the stand. I would only subtract points for the music stand. It does the job but it is a flimsy wireframe/plastic piece and it looks like an afterthought and feels like a design fail -- what a pity.

It's fun, and a joy to use and play, as all pianos should be. There are lots of usable tones and too many options. I need to subtract points because it only has Bluetooth Audio but not Bluetooth MIDI. I purchased the Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter to get MIDI to my iPad. Come on, Casio.

Now look, this doesn't have a Kawai touchscreen. The controls and behavior need deciphering -- they are frankly quite complex. A Kawai touchscreen spoils you that way. The manual is super-dense and has some ridiculous side notes. These guys need a Casio James. The knobs are a double-edged sword -- mess with one accidentally and you might be left to wonder what happened to your tone. There are too many controls, or too little, depending on what you are trying to achieve.

Reading the reviews here, I was worried about the sound and action. After all, this ought to be my highest priority. I wanted all of the above *and* excellent sound and action. Fortunately, I need not have worried. It sounds and feels fantastic in a home setting and has plenty of settings to tweak.

Look, this is no Novus, but this will certainly do.

At first I did feel like maybe the sound was too thin, muffled, and lacked bass. The default Grand Piano Concert felt muffled while the Grand Piano Bright felt more fun but slightly artificial. However, once I placed it against a wall, adjusted the volume, and made sure no one was touching those knobs, it sounded quite fantastic on speakers. The speakers are rear-facing but there are forward-facing sound ports in the keyboard. The sound bounces nicely against the wall. The bass is still not that strong but strong enough you feel it in the keys. The bass feels even better once you turn on the virtual surround mode. However, I prefer the purity of stereo sound over the virtual surround mode and ultimately traded bass for purity.

Most importantly, the action feels super responsive and alive. The concern about the short pivot distance may be real, but it didn't seem to affect me -- I'm not near the level where that might be a concern. Playing and controlling expression is a joy. The action and sound are well-integrated and bring this piano alive.

The default Grand Piano Concert is a woodier sound. It's really quite lovely once you get a feel for it. The Grand Piano Bright sound is fun. It doesn't feel as authentic as GPC but it's alive and cuts through a mix beautifully and effortlessly. It's unfortunate that Casio doesn't have the funds or courage to publicize the actual grand piano(s) these sounds are sampled from -- I would certainly love to learn more details.

Knob 1 defaults to "Cutoff Freq" for GPC and GPB -- I have no idea what that means (and the manual is dumb) but set it to minimum and the sound feels woodier and more muffled. Set it to max and it sounds best for GPC. Bright enough that I don't feel the need to switch to GPB as often, although I still do for the fun of it. There are other brilliance and reverb settings to play with, but I currently have those on defaults.

That'll do pig (PX-S), that'll do.

Filter cutoff frequency has a function similar to brightness, but it works differently. Set it to maximum, and it does nothing at all. But from there, the more you lower it, the more it rolls off (freduces or filters out) high frequencies, making the sound less bright.

Can any users help me with a question on the PXS 3000 and reverb?

So it seems that some sounds you can't add reverb to. No matter what adjustment you make and whatever "sound" setting light is on, there is no reverb.

"Electric piano 010 Amp 60s EP" is one example.

Also if you select a sound that has reverb and then edit it's DSP, the reverb disappears.

Can any other users confirm this?

Is there a way to reset a sound to factory preset during experimenting with the knobs, DSP, choruses, etc. when setting up registrations? Do I just have to keep turning off board?

Try pressing the + and - (or Yes/No, Back/Forward etc.) buttons at the same time.

I have no idea if this will work, but it's a standard convention on many digital pianos for resetting adjusted settings.

Cheers,
James
x

Using + and - together when knobs list shows on screen brings you back to assignable 1, but doesn't change parameters that were altered.

A good try that I read about in the manual but doesn't seem to reset everything. I'm hoping there's another solution (or software update if applicable.)

These are MSRP. The real prices will probably be lower.

I soooooo badly want a PX-S3000 to replace my PX-160 I'm hoping I can find one on Black Friday this November.

Can anyone recommend a vendor / seller to look at for Black Friday sales this year?

Got easy comparison chart for the comparison.
PX S1000 PX S3000
Built-in Tones 18 700
# of Chorus 4 12
Reverb (environment) Control No Yes
Built-in Rhythms No 200
Pitch Bend Wheel No Yes
Control knobs (not volume) No 2
Touch Sensor button 7 18
3 pedal connection Yes Yes
Individual pedal input 2 3
Battery-powered playability Yes Yes

From https://digitalpianobestreview.com/2019/06/18/casio-privia-px-s3000-review-comparison-best-price/

This chart excludes the fact that the S3000 has an LCD screen, which helps with the complex UI.

Hey Navindra,

I am also considering the PX-S3000 and I share similar concerns about the sound. I found the sound lacking in Bass too. This made me stretch my budget to consider AP470 and AP650M too.

Now, speaking in terms of features:
AP470 = PX-S3000 minus extra sounds (assuming they use the same sound engine) + wooden cabinet + excellent speakers + $
AP650M = PX-S3000 + wooden cabinet + excellent speakers + $$

With this, I am left with the following questions:
- Will keeping PX-S3000 against a wall improve the bass to the extent provided by AP470?
- If I consider buying PX-S3000 and adding decent monitors, would the audio output be comparable to that of AP470?
- Should I buy AP470 instead for its sound and buy a separate keyboard later for the extra sounds(bells and whistles)?

AP650M has everything, but the price difference between AP650M and AP470 is about 25k INR(approx. 360 USD) in India. Not sure if that's justified, as the extras it brings can be had from a separate basic keyboard instead.

Cheers,

Just a quick heads up that there will be a Piano Buyer review of the 3000 with a good amount of video content from an experienced reviewer, very shortly.

Pending the upcoming Piano Buyer review, I'll take a stab at this.


Quite simply, no.



What do you think of the sound of the PX-S3000 on headphones? Do you like it? If so, the sky should be the limit with monitors.



If the AP650M has everything you desire in a piano/keyboard experience (harmonium, sitar, tabla, etc), then you should probably buy that instead of trying to patch together an unwieldy system with slim portable keyboard, monitors, extra keyboard, VST, etc.

However if you really don't care about extras and your focus is just piano, then the AP470 sounds reasonable.

Ah- here it is. The print version hasn’t been released yet:

https://youtu.be/UVEbttsAoAo

Thanks Navindra,



Haven't tried yet. Will check in the store and get back.



Hmm.. Actually, all I need is guitar & flute voices and a few rhythms and accompaniments. Though most of my focus will be on learning Piano, the metronome gets boring beyond a point and using rhythms helps.

Besides the price difference, AP650M also seems to be an older model. Not sure how it differs internally to the relatively newer AP470.

Do you have any other suggestions?

Cheers,

Can you throw some light on the sound from the speakers ? Does it sound 'tinny' lacking bass?

Cheers,

Hi,

I got the PX-S1000 that i got after realizing that the Roland Go:Piano was not really a great piano to learn to play on. So far super satisfied with my purchase and it's really good enough for me. some thought so far:

1: I liked the harpsichord sound a lot more on the Roland Go:Piano but nice that it's there.
2. Key action feels amazing in comparison. But i have two keys (F1 and F3) that sort of gives out a scraping sound, very subtle but it's there. Anyone else have this? All other keys make no special sound when pressed down. If anyone wants i can share a video.
3: When connecting an iPad for the sound i.e headphone jack out of iPad to Line in in piano i get a lot of noise. I don't get this when doing the same thing from my Mac. Anyone else experiences this or can try it?

/Bobo

FWIW --

If the keys don't move slowly (you can hear the scaping, but can't _feel_ the scraping),

. . . and if you can't hear the scraping over the sound of normal playing:

. . . I suggest leaving it alone.

But I'm not a perfectionist, and I don't own a new DP.