The Korg SP170s is a beautiful, simplistic digital keyboard that provides everything a pianist could want in terms of sound quality and a realistic key action. With this keyboard, Korg has struck out to eliminate all of the unnecessary fluff of many digital pianos and focus only on the vitally important aspects, such as key action and a nice realistic sound.
This has allowed the company to produce a digital piano that is highly affordable yet still has one of the finest key actions and level of sound quality that you will find in the price range of this piano. In this Korg SP170s review, we’ll take a closer look at the innovations that went into this piano and decide whether or not is a good fit for most pianists.
he key action of this piano is highly realistic and provides plenty of resistance in order to mimic the feel of an acoustic piano and offers a key touch control that allows you to adjust the sensitivity of the keys to your liking. Concerning the sound of the piano, the SP170s comes with two different piano sounds that have been recorded from two separate concert grand pianos, which instantly sets it apart from most digital pianos which have only one piano sound that has been live-recorded. Lastly, the SP170s comes with plenty of helpful features, despite its simplistic, budget-minded design.
Our Ratings
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Sound Quality
As mentioned, the SP170s comes with two different piano voices that have each been recorded live from two different concert grand pianos. Both of these voices are quite realistic and pleasant to listen to. Along with these, the SP170s also comes with eight other voices—a small amount, but all of them are of good quality.
The sound of the SP170s is further enhanced by individually selectable reverb and chorus effects. The reverb effect gives the piano’s sound a pleasant spaciousness while the chorus effect gives it warmth and adds a dimension of motion to the sound. All together, the sound quality of this Korg electric piano is very high quality and is plenty realistic enough for any performance.
Key Action and Realism
Key Action and RealismThe key action of the SP170s is bolstered by a natural weighted hammer action keyboard that is scaled to provide a playing experience that is as similar as possible to that of an acoustic piano. Three different levels of touch responsiveness allow the keyboard to be modified to fit the preferences of the individual playing it.
While the key action of the SP170s is a little lighter than an acoustic piano, it is still heavy enough to be plenty realistic, and the scaled keys are a touch you do not often see on a digital keyboard. For practical purposes, the SP170s has a realistically weighted keyboard with a key action that makes it more than pleasant to play.
Other Features and Specifications
One interesting feature of the SP170s is that most of its settings are controlled via the keys of the keyboard rather than buttons on the instrument itself. While this may take a little getting used to, it does make for an instrument that is much more streamlined and pleasant to look at.
Along with this, the SP170s also comes with features such as two separate headphone jacks, a damper pedal, an improved speaker system, a convenient Piano Play button that instantly recalls the main piano sound, and 10 different voices.
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Final Thoughts
The SP170s is a fine piano for someone wanting a simplistically designed keyboard that gets the important factors right. The key action of this piano is effectively realistic, and the inclusion of two different live-recorded piano sounds is a very nice bonus. Altogether, this is a high-quality instrument that would make a great piano for most any level pianist.