I was in a music shop today to buy a guitar for a friend of mine but I had to wait for one of the guys to bring the guitar from the storehouse, so I decided to spend the time to test the SV-1 73 which was on the floor. I've had about 20-30 minutes with it, there were no other people in the store and I tested it with Sennheiser 575 headphones. Here are my impressions:

First of all the interface is fantastic! There is no LCD screen with bloated menus, hidden functions and key combinations. Just big handy knobs and that's everything! It's so intuitive you know everything about the piano in one minute.

The keyboard. I've read many people complaining about the keyboard, so I wasn't expecting much. That's why I am pleasantly surprised. The keys are well-weighted, firm and thus very expressive. What I didn't like is the hard bottoming which is somehow unnatural. But that's a problem also with most of the Roland keyboards I've tried. Anyway, I am perfectly happy with the keyboard, having in mind I am comaparing it directly with the RM3 action of the Kawai which is arguably one of the most realistic actions (after AvantGrand of course). There was a demonstration unit of the keyboard with 4 white and 3 black keys in a transparent plexiglass box and one of the black keys already had some problems with the bounce back of the keys, so maybe the complaints regarding KORG keyboards are regarding reliability.

The sounds. Electric Piano sounds are the first two categories, so obviously they are the main focus in SV-1. The Rhodes sound is very realistic but to be honest, I am not very impressed. Nothing bad, but there's something lacking and I don't know exactly what. I tried all the available Rhodes sounds with all the amp simulations and different effects and some of them would be very useful but I couldn't find the sound I am personally looking for in a Rhodes emulation, for example the one in Herbie Hancock's Butterfly, Chameleon, etc. I was able to recreate that sound on my old Roland RD-700SX for example. Anyway, the acoustic piano is a huge disappointment, it's very unrealistic, there's something wrong in the decay of the sound, metallic and even synthetic. I understand acoustic piano is not the main target of such an instrument but that's not an excuse. Other sounds failed to impress me. It's only the strings sound which was actually quite good. I've heard there is an upgraded SoundPack 2 for SV-1 and maybe the sounds are better there.

The effects. Some of them are excellent, the amp simulations seem to be very well implemented and there are two real valves! On the downside, switching the effects while playing interrupts the sound. There's a compressor and other types of sound manipulation. There's a stereo delay which I loved and you can even tap the tempo!

In a conclusion - not a bad instrument: extraordinary interface, very good keyboard feel, very good Rhodes (although not exceptional) with great effects, disappointing acoustic piano, so-so other sounds. Great concept but the realisation could have been slightly better. Maybe the SoundPack2 solves that. And despite the price being not so high, it is still too high for what it offers in my opinion. I havent' played an MP6 but from what I hear, MP6 has great keyboard, great acoustic and Rhodes piano, great effects and amp simulation for a lower price. However the KORG has unique interface and image, so that could probably justify the higher price for some people.

I've owned two now- sold one and returned the other. In spite of that I still feel the SV1 is a good keyboard for certain people in certain musical contexts. It just wasn't for me.

Yes the Soundpack 2 greatly improves the Rhodes and APs. The APs still have a disconnect or distant feeling to them when I was playing in the trio or quartet....hard to verbalize but coupled with that action, they just didn't feel or sound right. Like the Nord Pianos , the SV-1's APs record better then they sound live through speakers.

I found toggling between the banks to find a sound very inconvenient. The best way is to save to the "favorites" buttons. I believe there are 8.

I think Korg is offering a $500 rebate, at least in the US, on the SV1. So that should put it around $1200 new. That's what they should've been selling for in the first place imo. There were recently two used but in great condition SV1 88s on the LA CL that were selling for $1000. I was tempted but then my memory reminded me of my recent experiences with it. Maybe the SV2 will be a better board. Personally, at this stage, I'd be very gun shy of buying anything Korg that uses that RH3 keybed. The reliability issues of the electronics seem to be an issue too. Just check out the Korg forums under SV1. Korg is just going to have to prove they have their QC together before I take a chance on their stuff right now. Aside from trying to save dough, I really don't know what's going on with them these days- their keyboards used to be built like tanks and ultra-reliable.

This wasn't my experience, awful, non expressive and cheap feeling.