REVIEW - Casio PX860 Digital Piano - new 2015 model - RECOMMENDED as a "Best Buy"

REVIEW - Brand new & improved Casio PX860 digital piano Privia series for 2015. The new & improved PX860 is replacing the Casio PX850, which was their best seller and most popular digital piano for the last few years. The new PX860 will be available sometime in late January 2015 or early February based on what I hear. The price of the PX860 is supposed to be the same price as the PX850 was ($1099 internet price) and will remain largely unchanged with regard to cabinet design with opening sound projection lid, finish colors, control panel, internal sound system, and functions, but with notable upgrades to the actual piano sound & instrument samples and reverb effects system.

PX860 satin black

The sound upgrades over the PX850 are supposed to be a more realistic acoustic piano sound along with better sounding non-acoustic piano instruments such as improved strings and electric pianos. Casio has also added new "reverb settings" call Hall Simulation which is supposed to give the piano sound a more spacious effect such as you would hear in a large concert hall or church where there is natural echo that occurs when playing an instrument. I am sure this will be a nice feature and add to the sonic presence of the acoustic piano sounds and make the piano more enjoyable to play. I have heard these kinds of effects before in other digital instruments and they can add to the realism of piano playing, but these effects are not always necessary depending on the type of music  you might play.

PX860 satin brown oak

Also, Casio has included a new music library that consists of 10 orchestra classical songs that you can play along with using the piano sounds. The 10 songs are in an audio wav format (recorded from live orchestra) and sounds just like a real recording of the instruments as you would have in a regular CD. The new songs are independent in their sounds and format but you can interact with them by playing along. The 10 songs are standard classical music and although they are fun to play along with, you would need to be able to read music (or play by ear) and play along at the song skill level so that you could interact with the music properly.  You can slow down the songs, mute either right or left hand playback sound for live playalong and do a few other things with the orchestra accompaniment which are all fun to do and helpful for learning. But there certainly are other ways to do this (iPad apps, etc) and with much larger music libraries that offer a better variety of music in multiple music categories. From all appearances it's a good feature but I am not sure it's going to "knock my socks off" since there are only 10 songs all in the classical category, but I'll let everyone know when I actually have a chance to play and hear it.

PX860 satin white

Overall I believe the new upgrades, as stated in the Casio specs, are going to be quite nice, but beyond these features the new PX860 will be the same as the previous PX850 from everything I can see at this point. Since the new model is not out yet in the US, I have not actually played it but will be doing that soon. In the meantime if you want more in depth info on the other things the PX860 does, just read my review of the prior PX850 and then you'll know much of what it does from that review and I have played the PX850 many times so I know that piano well. The PX850 was extremely popular because it had a big piano sound utilizing advanced digital sound technology with 256-note polyphony processing power, a responsive ivory/ebony feel key action that's by far the best in its price range, was fairly easy to use, had lots of cool features that most other pianos in its price range do not have, and it looked attractive in its sleek contemporary cabinet. The new PX860 retains all of those features because sometimes it's difficult to improve on successful products so why change it much if people love what it already does:). Casio kept all of the "good parts" of the piano and added and upgraded a small portion for a new "icing on the cake" as I refer to it.

Since the PX850 is now discontinued and no longer available at Casio, if you want the new model PX860 in the US, it's my best guess you should pre-order one while you can and get in line so that when they come out soon, you'll be able to actually have one as I suspect they will be difficult to get for awhile. There are other high quality digital pianos out there in other brands in this lower price range, but in my opinion for $1099 internet price, the PX860 cannot be beat for what it does. This model is really for people who want a piano and not too much else. If you really just want to play piano and enjoy piano music with a few extra features (bells & whistles) and you want to stay near $1000, then the Casio PX860 is probably for you. I can also help people with getting in a pre-order of the new PX860 at Casio US at a reduced discount price, so contact me before doing anything else and I can give you details. 

*Also go to the following link to read my prior review on the previous PX850 which will give you most of what the new PX860 can do other than the new things that I previously mentioned:
Casio PX850 review

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet & Amazon discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

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