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Casio Privia 870 Digital Piano
The Privia line of digital pianos is very popular in providing authentic grand piano experience. In these exciting Casio products come a flagship they called the Privia 870. It has the real feel, sound, and power of a real grand piano.
To get to know this flagship digital piano better, here are some of its interesting features. After reading this, you’ll be able to decide whether this serves you well, or you need to explore something else.
Old- School Look and Feel
Privia 870 is a furniture-style digital piano that’s very sleek and stylish. It’s only around 11.7 inches deep, so you can just simply put it around the corner of your room. Although it’s quite heavy, weighted at 75.6 lbs when fully assembled, it can still be moved around by two persons.
The keybed comes with ivory and ebony key surfaces. These absorb moisture, prevent finger slipping and allow you to have more control of the keys. It is available in black and white finishes.
88-Fully Weighted Keys and 3 Pedals
This digital piano features Casio’s well-known Tri-sensor Scaled Hammer Action Keyboard II. Like Yamaha’s GHS action system, this feature also makes use of real hammers like those of an acoustic piano. So, you can get the feel and the touch of an old-school piano in its weighted keys.
It is touch-sensitive, which means, the volume of the sound produced when you strike the keys depends on how strong or soft you press them. There are three options you can select in the preset touch-sensitivity setting – Soft, Medium and Hard. You can also turn this off to disable the graded keys and play the keys at a certain volume.
It comes with three pedals- sustain, soft and sostenuto. Since the sustain pedal supports half-pedal, it acts like a damper pedal in an acoustic piano.
Exceptional Sound Quality
This digital piano utilizes the Multi-dimensional Morphing AiR Sound Source, which obtains samples from a 9-foot grand piano. It has an increased memory and uses lossless audio compression tech, which gives high quality, rich sound and great accuracy.
It features a 4-layer piano tone, which is very fantastic. It has a total of 19 built-in sounds, including grand pianos, electric pianos, organs, string, harpsichord, vibraphone, bass, and string. It may not have the hundreds and thousands of sounds available, but the 19 will surely blow your mind.
One of the most amazing features of this digital piano is the concert play. This allows you to play along with a recording of an actual orchestra.
Useful Controls and Features
Compared to its predecessor 860, the Privia 870 appears to be less clutter when it comes to the controls. All of them are moved to the left, which makes the whole thing very neat.
You can only see eight buttons and one master volume knob. Though the controls appear to be minimal, the “Function” button allows more functions, sounds, voices, and settings, among others. What you’ll do is to simply press and hold the “Function” button and press the key that corresponds to the function you need to access.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a screen display, which might give more convenience to players. However, the labels on top of the dedicated keys will help guide you as you play.
In addition, it also has a beeping system (number of beeps) that will help you know what setting you will have based on the current setting of your piano. You can hear 1, 2, 3 or four beeps to help you know what setting you’ve selected.
Great Connectivity and Speakers
It has two stereo jacks that allow you to practice with headphones without disturbing others. It also has a USB Type B port that lets you connect your digital piano to a computer for file transfer. And, you can also connect a USB flash drive directly to the digital piano using a USB Type A port.
It comes with 4-speaker system that allows the sound to come from different directions – top, above the keys and underneath the keyboard. So, this digital piano can really provide the louder sound for your performance. You can rely on this on big room performances without the need for external speakers.
Simplistic and Intuitive, Indeed
Yes, you can just count the buttons and memorize the functions in an hour. However, this can be a great tool for practice and for music recording. You can play it like you are playing with an orchestra, or you can play classical tones from this instrument.
- Sounds and feels like a real full-sized piano
- Compact and very easy to transport
- Speakers are extremely louder, but also comes with a headphone jack
- Action feels great; it encourages you to play more
- This is not portable, needs more than one person to move around
- No screen display that might aid learning and playing
It’s great, but is just lacking a little…
The controls and the overall appearance of the digital piano are awesome. It’s sturdy, durable and it can provide authentic sounds, almost comparable to a real grand piano. However, since, it has a modern design, it should also have some modem feature and that includes a screen display.
But, since it employs beeps when you change your settings, at least the players will be guided. But, for ultimate beginners, this one might not be enough. But, it’s always a preference issue after all, so take my advice with a pinch of salt.
Verdict
It’s simple, but complete. Though it only has limited sounds, Casio PX-870 gives you more realistic ones than those offering hundreds, even thousands. It’s reliable and a great tool for practice with its intuitive controls.
Is it really a great deal?
For beginners, this might not be that affordable, unless if you really want to spend almost one grand. However, for home use or for studio recording, this digital piano could be one of your best musical instrument investments.
