It's going ...
Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 6:41 pm
After some serious soul searching over the weekend I've decided to return the Kronos 73 I received last week. I crammed a week's worth of play into three days in order to make sure this was the right decision for me. I realize that not everyone has had problems with the Kronos. But IMO you can't ignore the many others that have had similar issues. I can't justify paying $3000 for a keyboard that supposedly is brand new out of the box and has these kind of problems. Also because of this I can't commit to the ordeal of exchange/repair. Even if I did, the long term reliability of this keyboard is questionable. And I would expect at this price point for it to last, well, a lifetime.
Issues ...
I've got major problems with the RH3 key bed. While the keys on this 73 are mostly even in height across the board, (two keys are not) there are notable gaps in the key spacing. Every octave between B and C has a gap. There are others as well.
In the second octave the C,E,F and G keys are all making a clunking sound on release. After just a few days of use other keys have been added to the list. Interestingly enough it's usually after the board has been played a while that this occurs. When you first sit down most of the keys work as expected.
The plastic cover on the lower joy stick is uneven and loose on the left edge. I've tried out two 61's and neither of them had any real build issues I could find other than the cheap plastic end caps and control wheel. I must admit this defect was a surprise. Does anyone even check these before putting them in the box???
I've had combis lock up twice while playing. Every note locked on sustain. The second time this happened I had to reboot the unit in order to recover. This might well be fixed in the new OS but who knows.
I've had note cutoffs from time to time. I wasn't sure at first but after 3 days of use there is no doubt. Check out outjets nice video here for a perfect example :
http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... &start=105
As I've said before I could live with a few minor problems but that is clearly not the case here. IMO Korg has some serious quality control issues.
That was all the negative stuff and it's not fair to leave it at that. Once you get past these problems this is a truly amazing machine. The sounds this thing can produce are incredible. With only a few exceptions I found the workflow excellent. After having several Yamaha's and a few Roland's I am impressed with Korg in many areas. The tools are all there for any setting, live or studio. The sequencer, sampler, connectivity, I could go on and on but many of you already know this stuff.
So Korg really broke my heart on this one. I truly believe they are a better key bed and a little better build quality away from having the best workstation ever built.
One last thing. I want to thank everyone here for all the help and support they give. I've been able to make a very difficult decision, and feel good about it, due in no small part to all of you. Thank you!
Take care.
Issues ...
I've got major problems with the RH3 key bed. While the keys on this 73 are mostly even in height across the board, (two keys are not) there are notable gaps in the key spacing. Every octave between B and C has a gap. There are others as well.
In the second octave the C,E,F and G keys are all making a clunking sound on release. After just a few days of use other keys have been added to the list. Interestingly enough it's usually after the board has been played a while that this occurs. When you first sit down most of the keys work as expected.
The plastic cover on the lower joy stick is uneven and loose on the left edge. I've tried out two 61's and neither of them had any real build issues I could find other than the cheap plastic end caps and control wheel. I must admit this defect was a surprise. Does anyone even check these before putting them in the box???
I've had combis lock up twice while playing. Every note locked on sustain. The second time this happened I had to reboot the unit in order to recover. This might well be fixed in the new OS but who knows.
I've had note cutoffs from time to time. I wasn't sure at first but after 3 days of use there is no doubt. Check out outjets nice video here for a perfect example :
http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... &start=105
As I've said before I could live with a few minor problems but that is clearly not the case here. IMO Korg has some serious quality control issues.
That was all the negative stuff and it's not fair to leave it at that. Once you get past these problems this is a truly amazing machine. The sounds this thing can produce are incredible. With only a few exceptions I found the workflow excellent. After having several Yamaha's and a few Roland's I am impressed with Korg in many areas. The tools are all there for any setting, live or studio. The sequencer, sampler, connectivity, I could go on and on but many of you already know this stuff.
So Korg really broke my heart on this one. I truly believe they are a better key bed and a little better build quality away from having the best workstation ever built.
One last thing. I want to thank everyone here for all the help and support they give. I've been able to make a very difficult decision, and feel good about it, due in no small part to all of you. Thank you!
Take care.
