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.
Ref. Piano World