Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Korg Kronos and NP2, best piano sound?

We discuss quite a lot here the two extremely subjective questions, which digital piano sounds best and which has the best action. For anyone still deciding (and others just for the enjoyment) I suggest watching the videos of PianoManChuck.

Here is a link (well at the bottom of the post actually) to him playing Let It Be on a Korg Kronos and Nord Stage Piano 2. Those two pianos seem amazing, but very expensive. The link takes you to a playlist, but Chuck has many videos, where he is playing the mentioned pianos, or the two popular Casio Privias, PX-350 and PX-5S.

Of those four pianos, he says he likes the Korg Kronos best because of it's piano sound, but mostly because of it's great action. He says the piano sound of the NP2 is the best there is, but the action is too light. Judging from the videos, I tend to agree with him, though there's nothing wrong with the sound of the Privias, in my opinion.

The link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6IHKTVvxO0&list=PL4lH80nobNBJsuz0qKvFhcz2yTwI30dyH

Regardless of which someone likes better (and each has its fans), I think it points out again the near meaninglessness of specs. The Kronos piano is 4.something gigs, the Nord is maybe 10% of that, looped and stretched. In practice, even if you like the Kronos better, how dramatic is that difference really? We talk so much about looping and stretching here, perhaps because it's easy to measure and objectively discuss, but I don't think they are the most important part of what makes a piano sound better or more enjoyable to play. The problem is that the more important parts don't reduce to specs and measurements... it's just what you hear and feel.

It seems for every 5% improvement or step up in better sound or touch, the price of the DP doubles. I don't think the difference of sound is dramatic enough to justify the high price. Can't comment on the touch, as I've never tried the Korg and the Nord. Was considering buying a used Nord once, I think it was NP1. Yes, specs and measurements only tell part of the story.

This wins the internet.

But..but...you're implying musical and actual playing experience here. If we had to talk about just that, we couldn't stretch these threads out to 10 pages or more . What else would we do with our time ?! Actually practice ?! Woe is me, what fun that ?

Seriously-I have played the Kronos 73 one time in a live jazz quartet context when I owned the CP5 years ago. For piano the Korg was good , it did the job well, but not inspirational like the Yamaha was.

I much prefer the action/sound connection on the Nord Piano 88/NP2 to the Korg RH3 action. The overall build quality of the keyboard goes in the Nord's corner by a mile !

If you're considering the lighter Fatar action of the Stage 2 over the NP2, then for me, the playing gap closes more between it and the Kronos.

If I had to choose a *do it all keyboard* to play more commercial music other then Jazz, where you needed the highest quality of "other sounds", I'd buy a Kronos over the Stage 2.

I am lucky enough to own a korg Kronos 73x and a yamaha CP4. The korg is a fine instrument and I am having a lot of fun playing pads from the end of the universe and time, killer b3 and lead synths. The combis are great fun and I am just starting w the sequencer.

But the piano sound and keybed are better on the CP4, IMHO. I love the feel of the cp4, the RH3 feels cheap and clunky.

Neither sound as good as my yamaha upright, or feel as good.

I am doing a jazz pop duo and some larger group jazz gigs, using the CP4 for those and it works fine. If I were still doing club dates I would use the korg, but for jazz and simple split bass I prefer the yamaha.