Technics SX-P50

Just press the on/off button, select your preset sound(s), add some reverb (or just use the great string resonance without reverb), change the touch and brilliance settings on-the-fly with very few buttons. It's that easy. After a few minutes of practice, you'll only need the handbook for changing some exotic MIDI-settings....... One negative remark: all organ sounds (9!!) are preset under one button, so it takes more time to browse through the list and select the right one than with the other one-touch preset sounds.

The keyboard action of this one is great; not too heavy (like the Yamaha P80) and very precise and responsive.

It has no expansion board capabilities, no on-board sequencer, etc., etc. I am using the sx-P50 together with a keyboard (and a PC with MIDI at home), so I am not so much worried about the lack of bells and whistles on the sx-P50.

I'm only interested in the piano, electric piano and organ sounds and those are fantastic or even incredible. Making sound-layers and adjusting the relative volume is a breeze.

I would say if your sx-P50 sounds crappy then check your headphone and/or speakers. If you have low-end equipment then you might need to do a lot of equalizing to get a decent sound. Only using high-quality speakers will give the great piano sounds the right amount of depth, presence and realism!! A chain is as strong as it's weakest link.

When you drag the sx-P50 around (only 16kgs and just fits on the backseat of my car, which is very convenient) it feels very rugged. You get the feeling that it's made for pro's, but I didn't drop it yet, so it's difficult to rate.

Didn't need those guys so far. Let's keep it that way!

Yes, I would buy it again. Definitely. Let's make one thing clear: if you are looking for a great piano, electric piano and organ sound then go for the sx-P50. If you want to have more sounds (like synth pads, wind and brass, acoustic and electric bass) and maybe rhythm (and a build-in sequencer) then you have to spend at least 3x as much money to get the same overall quality. Beware, most of those alternatives are a lot heavier.......

very easy to use. doesn't take rocket scientist to figure out how to switch sounds. Not a lot of options to edit patches like Roland keyboards. That's ok for me because I have a keyboard that does that and don't like to edit patches too often anyway. The manual is sufficient. there's really not a great need for it anyway because you just plug it in and play!

I love the action! it's like a real piano. you can change the action to from light, normal to heavy. That's great for me to strengthen the fingers. No on-board sequencer. this definitely isn't a workstation. 88 keys! The effects are limited - what you see is what you get.

I LOVE the piano and electric piano sounds! it's great for classical, jazz, and other contemporary styles. the string sound sucks and unfortunately, I need strings often!! (my major dissapointment with this keyboard)

I gig with it often. It's portable, small and yet produces a big sounds. it looks great, unique.

if stolen, I don't think I'd buy another one because of the poor strings. Also, the vibes and vocals are useless! I've played for 15 years seriously. If you want a portable , basic, great piano sounding, feeling keyboard, this is worth purchasing.

For simple playing, it's impeccable -- turn it on, choose a sound and let it rip. There are a couple of nonobvious features, though, that can't really be accessed without consulting the manual. Technics should have silkscreened a little "cheat sheet" on the instrument so people could turn string resonance on and off or select their MIDI channel without having to look for the manual.

Polyphony is adequate (64 voices), keyboard action is simply great -- I compared this to the Korg SP-200 and the Yamaha P80. It blows them out of the water; the Korg feels like a toy and the Yamaha is too mushy in comparison. The P-50's action is crisp and responsive, better than a bad wooden piano, that's for sure. The LIGHT/NORMAL/HEAVY setting for touch sensitivity is great, too.
Thre built-in four-level reverb is pretty useless to me as I don't like reverb; the reverb DSP does string resonance when reverb is turned off, though. There's a "digital effect" button that gives you things like a detuned effect for the pianos, a "coupled" sound for the harpsichord, candy chorus for the e-pianos, vibrato for the vibraphone and the fast Leslie speed for the organs. There's no way to turn off the Leslie altogether for the organ patches, though.
MIDI is okay, there's no splitting, but the thing can serve as a multitimbral sound generator with each of the 16 patches responding to a different channel.
All the connectors are on the left side of the instrument, which makes the back look prettier, yet is unfortunate if, for example, your amp is on the right-hand side and your cable is too short.

The sounds are wonderful, plain and simple. Great acoustic and electric piano, a harpsichord that has the sound of plucks falling back and is not velocity sensitive (which is great). IMHO, this instrument is the best solution for anyone in need of a portable piano in the mid price range. It's a piano emulator. Full stop.
It should have a jack for a soft pedal; at the price it comes at, you shouldn't ask for more advanced sustain pedal features such as modelled string resonance or a pedal that does more than just on or off.
The instruments sound so good over headphones you will quickly notice any flaws in your amplification system. One case in point: Playing the predecessor, the P30, over a Yamaha MS60 monitor sounded great to me. With the P50, things are different -- I started to notice the MS60 doesn't do enough treble to do this great piano justice.

This instrument's top and back side are made of extruded and brushed aluminium, but the rest is plastic. It's pretty sturdy, though. I never dropped it, but I suppose it would keep on ticking.

So far I've never dealt with Technics support, but my dealer says they're OK.

This thing is great. I plan to have it serve as my only piano for the years that I'll be living in an 11 m? dorm room. Of course it's not perfect, but it's as close as you get at that price.
I've been playing the piano for nearly 15 years now. The P50 takes the lower level on my stand, with a Roland RS-5 atop of it and a Viscount D9e to the side, which I have reviewed separately. I'm still looking for the ideal way to amplify it -- at the moment, I'm making do by playing it through my Allsound rotary cabinet, and for piano-only gigs, I lend my father's Yamaha MS60, but I think this baby needs a real high-end keyboard amp to exploit its sound completely, and I've yet to find that amp.
The P50's greatest asset is the wonderful keyboard action, but it has great sounds to go with it, too. The Yamaha P80 is a good deal inferior in every way, while the Korg SP-200 is completely inferior, except for a bank of nice Rhodes, Wurlitzer and Clavinet patches.

It's as simple as turning it on and playing.The piano sounds are very good.I,myself prefer the pop piano preset because it's a little brighter over my P.A. system.However,through headphones all are excellent.As one of the other folks mentioned,I too compared it to the Yamaha P-80.This piano is far superior.The only sound that I consider to be weak is the harpsicord,but frankly that's a sound that I wouldn't use anyway.
There is very little in the way of editing capabilities in this unit.It is primarily a "bare bones" instrument,which by the way is exactly what I was looking for.
The manual is decent with the typical,sometimes humourous Japanese to English translations.

I love the action.There are three options for touch sensitivity.The unit has four reverb presets,all of which are nice.They range from a small room ambiance to a concert hall.Although these reverbs can't be edited,you can adjust their depth,which makes them very useful.They are as easy to use as pressing a button.
The unit does not have a sequencer in it.Although it's got the typical (and annoying,in my opinion)"DEMO" mode to audition the sounds. I do like the way they set it up though.The user has to press a series of buttons to activate it,thereby preventing any embarrassing moments on stage when "Tiny Bubbles" starts spewing out of your keyboard because you accidently hit the "DEMO" button.

The sounds are very realistic in my opinion.If I could change only one thing,I would like to be able to edit the decay of the piano presets.It's not a serious problem,but it's something that I will have to adjust to.
I do not like the sustain pedal that comes with the unit.However I've got a bigger Yamaha pedal and it works fine with it.
I should mention that the piano uses a "wall wart" for power.Having an internal power supply would be a big improvement.But as we all know,this is what helps make a product cost-effective.
I think this piano is very versitile,and would do well in any musical situation.

I haven't had it long enough to drop it yet.

I am happy with this piano.I would buy another one if something were to happen.The Technics P50 is a solid value.I own a Roland RD-500 as well and although the p50 is a simpler unit,the piano sounds absolutely stand up.In fact they are better over a P.A. system.There's more presence and less of that "electronic plunky" sound.
I have been playing music professionally for over twenty years.
If there's a love-hate thing goin' on with this piano,I'd say I love the weight>sound>value.I hate the external power supply.

This has to be as close to idiot proof as humanly possible.Its nice to have all the plug in points(midi, power, headphones,output)at the
side rather than round the back.I dont really care what it looks like
its nice and compact,but personally the slightly curved top of the casing should be flat bieng as im English and i need somewhere to put
my teapot/tankard.

This is sold as a stage piano and that is exacly what it is.The action of the keyboard is nicely weighted infact you could forget your playing a digital piano. All the buttons are within easy reach.
one small improvement that would make a huge difference would be
an on/off footswitch for the digital effects.I couldnt here any drop out of notes even when overusing the pedal

I cant imagine there is much room for improvment on the piano sounds
all of which have great depth,maybe the Electric piano sounds could be
a little dirtier.One pleasant suprise was just how good the jazz organ
settings were,5 ranging from lovley thin leads right up to a crunching Jimmy Smith fattness . ive been using a dedicated module(oberhiem/viscount drawbar add on which is excellent)up until now but i can get by just using the technics.effects simulate a nice rotorcab
sound that slow out and speed up when swiched on just like they should! This is were a dedicated foot pedal would come in handy.The vibe sound is also worth a mention,it has that proper fullness that you dont get on a lot of other keyboards as well as a lovley slow vibrato when the effect button is used.I dont use the other sounds much(strings harpsichord church organs and voice but they all sound up to scratch, if you go for that type of thing.

it hasnt fallen apart yet. ill get back to you on that one.

I think it is the best piece of electronic equipment i have ever bought, brilliant sound the keyboard is the best ive ever played,so nicely wieghted responsive(which has got to be the most important thing with any musical instrument).Its all you need if you just want
a beautiful playable piano.I cant imagine getting rid of it.

Sound (through good quality amp/ speakers) amazing
Don't know what editing patches means
Manual - straight forward.

Touch sensivity - very good, better than my old upright piano.
Effects - great - more advanced if you can be bothered to go through the manual.

All piano options are really realistic, again you need a good amp/ speakers. I got low end Roland built in speaker apms $79. They are great for home use.
Great touch sensivity.
All reverb settings are further adjustable after the presets, so if you don't like how it plays, you can alter it further. The standard pedal in my opinion could be a little more than it is.

Very dependable, but only had it a few months. Wouldn't know about gigs.

If it was lost/stolen, I would buy the same again.
Been playing 15-20 years, with 4 year break.
Love - design, sound, touch.
Dislike - can't think

Very easy to use, just a couple of buttons to give you direct access to the sound you want, only the right organ (9 in total) is a little difficult to get to. It always starts at the default (not my favourite) organ.

Midi in and out, a sustainpedal, nothing much, nothing really fancy but nothing lacking eather!
Pressure sensitive key make it play close to the real thing!
Just a few basic effects, still nothing is missing!

All intruments are warm and quite realistic
there are only a couple of onboard effects but no weird stuff like flangers or so, anyway just enough to use the instrument the way you really one... close to the real thing

never lets me down, no problem using it on a gig

Really excellent piece of work, awsome warm and realistic sounds
The pressure senstive keys make it play quite like an accoustic piano, and the piano sounds gets very close to the real one!
And aside you get two great electric pianos, some strings, a hapsichord, nine organ sounds and more and more... all very beautiful!

Interface if very simple and the manual is well laid out. I use the piano 99% of the time and since that's what I bought it for. I don't really use much of the other features (other instruments, reverb, etc.)

Polyphony : With 64-note polyphone I never notice notes cutting out since I don't layer (select 2 instruments simultaneously).
The other reviews state it all : bare bones digital piano. It's fine for me because I woudln't want to pay for extra features - I just wanted their beautiful sound (more below)

The Concert Grand piano is fantastic. I compared it to the Yamaha P80 and the Kurzweil SP88X and the Technics just blew them away. Between the P80 and SP88X, I preferred the SP88x but it (SP88x) didn't have as good a touch/feel as the SP50. It's still far from perfect, especially since I'm used to practicing on a baby-grand at home but for what I paid, it's good enough.

My biggest complaint would be the on/off switch of the sustain pedal. When I want to end a note gently, I have to "pump" the sustain pedal because if I let go slowly, the not will just cut off. If I leave the pedal down, the note is sustained too long. "Pumping" doesn't sound great, but its much better than cutting off a note.

Only bought it recently so can't say.

It's definitely worth what I paid for. I don't see anything else in the market at this price that is comparable. If you're basically looking for a digital piano without the frills, this is the best one in the market today. If you're looking to mix, then look elsewhere.

I bought this at a Costco roadshow btw. I got them to price match with an online shop.

The keyboard is very straight forward as far as selecting sounds. There are some parameters such as the acoustic resonance adjustment and "instrument balance" when playing using two sounds simultaneously that I either didn't know existed or how to use (depending on the feature) until I read the manual. However, don't get me wrong, a quick glance at the manual and I was well on my way in a matter of minutes. The midi features are really basic and also just as easy to use. The preset sounds are great "right out of the box", especially the piano sounds, which I bought it for in the first place.

The keyboard has 64 note polyphony, a chorus/leslie depending on the sound selection, acoustic resonance, brilliance adjsutment, reverb, transpose, sustain pedal, and best of all, weighted/hammer action keys. The action is the best i have found in many test drives. I tried the mp-9000 and this one felt a little more heavier(action) and had a true feel of a grand piano. Midi responds to incoming key velocity/pressure data. The incoming midi response can be set to omni, activating whatever sound is currently selected on the p50, or can be channeled to a specific sound. Each channel 1-10 corresponds to one of the sounds on the p50. This allows for multi-timbral from the p50, playing one tone from another keyboard. It's about as compact as any other 88 key that I have played and weighs in under 50 lbs.

The piano sounds are the best I have heard. I believe the samples are taken from a steinway (so says the salesman). The "grand" "pop grand" and "upright" piano each reflect their acoustic counterparts with no noticible glitches in the samples that are typical of many digitals. The acoustice resonance of the sound board and neighboring strings is produced quite well in that the you can actually hear the hammer hittingthe strings. One thing that i wish it did come with however is a soft pedal. The brilliance and key response can be turned down to accomoplish this, but it won't do it on the fly with a pedal. The organ sounds are good, covering some typical classical stop combinations, paired with the on board reverb, give a cathedral sound.

It seems to be built well, extruded aluminum front top and back, wood base, plastic ends. Compared to other keyboards I've seen, I would call it average. I would play out with it no problem. Haven't had it that long to break it though.. : )

I had a few general up front warranty questions (1 year in home bumper to bumper, and then a few years after that, limited coverage. Customer support seemed to be very responsive and cooperative in the little that i had to deal with them. Can't say much more on that. However, I do wish they would have more dealerships.

I've tried the mp-9000 and a few other rolands and yamahas in the same price range (1000-1500$) and overall I don't think the sound of any of them compared to that of the SX-P50. The mp-9000 is much heavier than the p50, and side by side, well, it was like comparing a tank with a sports car.. (no offense kawai... i like my k3). I think the midi can be a little more flexible, but i think it will do the job. I wish it had a soft pedal. I would strongly advise trying this one out before buying another digital piano. I sound is really impressive, and other than having to drive 1 hour, 45 min to the nearest dealer, I am really glad I gave this one a shot. No regrets on this buy.

I just tried this out today in a local music shop and the salesman gave me a pair of headphones and let me go to town. I was there for mabye 30 minutes just messing around with all the different features, and while there aren't that many, the ones the keyboard has are very useful. Everything was very easy to figure out and I only needed a little help to figure out how to access the different organ sounds. Besides that I went through basically everything the piano had to offer on my own. VERY easy to get into and use

I was exteremely impressed with the keyboard action. I was out all day driving to different music shops trying out digital pianos and for me, this was the only one with an authentic touch. There isn't any room for expansion, and it's a little light on features, but this doesn't matter to me because all I want is something that feels and sounds like a piano. In this respect, this piano cannot be beat.

The piano sounds were amazing!! I plugged in a pair of headphones and after the first note I was hooked. This was by far the best sounding digital piano I tried. It reacts almost exactly like a real piano, and gives you full ability to be expressive with the action. I tried out all the different sounds and although the pianos were AMAZING, the rest were still good. Again, the sound of the pianos and action is where this keyboard really excels