yamahamusicians

Wouldn't a better comparison be between the CT-X3000 and PSR-E453? the E453 has more features than the CT-X700.

You have to bear in mind the price point we are talking about here. I could be picky over the CT-X700 having no control over reverb, sustain etc but look at the price. Pay more, get more features. That's how it works. I don't expect a keyboard that costs under $200 to provide everything I need but at least the CT-X700 does provide excellent quality sounds and a pretty good set of keys for the money. The CT-X5000 arrives this month and the CT-X3000 next month so we will be able to see then what the extra cash buys. As for the Casio vs Yamaha debate I would say Casio has pulled ahead in terms of sound. Yamaha tend to stick with the same thing for years. If it sells they keep it and the PSR range just keeps selling so they have invested very little in the sound engine and just gone the incremental route they took with the Motif line. Casio have come out with something completely fresh in AiX and it works brilliantly. All they need to do now is keep the momentum up and produce a series of pro level demos and they will clean up in this market.

That was a good price on the PSR E-453 I think Casio made a mistake leaving the CT-X700 without the pitch bend and given the price it sells for in the UK it definitely should have included one. Another area which I think Casio need to sort out is none of the new CT-X models have audio over usb. That's a bit of a negative for me. Also of course unlike the new PSR E-463 there is no user sampling either. Of course neither of those two things will matter to many but still, if your competition are going down that route it's never a bad idea to keep up? The AiX sound engine on the Casio is excellent though

I tried the PSR E-453 the other day and keeping in mind this is just my personal opinion, I thought the Casio CT-X700 sounded better in terms of acoustic pianos and had a better keybed. For everything else it's kind of a mixed bag. The Yamaha has more powerful speakers but I would not use them anyway. I don't think the on-board speakers in any of these keyboards do the sounds justice. Also there is slightly more variation on the Yamaha. The effects are pretty much the same on both though. I am splitting hairs though and we have to keep in mind the price point here. Casio have done a sterling job with the CT-X700 and I can only imagine the CT-X3000 and CT-X5000 are going to up the ante even more.

Hi Lee Casio have said the CT-X800 will not be on sale here in the UK but of course you can easily buy it from places like Bax and musicstore.de I'm not entirely sure what Casio's thinking was in making the CT-X700 AND CT-X800 as I would have thought it would make more sense to produce one at keyboard as the base model but include pitch bend. I agree with you that given their respective prices the CT-X3000 and CT-X5000 are probably the sweet spot and best value out of the lineup and I am really looking forward to getting a "hands-on" with them. I think they are in short supply at the moment though so not sure how long I will have to wait for those.

Thanks Mirka. Certainly the CT-X700 does sound good. I'm just thinking here in the UK the prices are not far apart and the Yamaha has Audio over USB, adjustable reverb etc. I'm hoping to get them side by side for a proper comparison but it's great to hear what Casio owners think. Casio are also sending me the CT-X3000 and CT-X5000 so again that will be a very interesting comparison with the new Yamaha E-463. Have to say I am quite surprised at the quality at this end of the market. Previously I have only been concerned with mid to top range synths so it's a bit of an eye opener for me to see what is happening with Keyboards like the CT-X

Not sure if any of you have tried the Yamaha PSR E-453 but if you have I would welcome your opinions on how it stacks up against the CT-X700? When I first heard about the CT-X700 I was quite excited mainly due to the sound quality and the price. I think in the states it sells for around $179? I was slightly less excited when I saw the UK price was going to be £229! (now £202) but given that Yamaha's nearest competitor the PSR E-453 was at or around the £300 mark I though the CT-X was still great value. Moving on a few weeks and the price of the PSR-E453 has fallen quite dramatically, now selling for £229 and the E-353 is just £169 so that kind of changes things a bit. Now although as you probably realised, I run a 'Yamaha' focused website I am not a 'Yamaha' fan boy. I use what works for ME regardless of the badge so there is no bias here on my part. What I would really love to hear is the views of Casio owners on how the two keyboards compare both in sound and functionality. I have the CT-X700 sitting next to me at the moment and I really like it. Casio have done a wonderful job BUT, I do think they need to address the price of it here in the UK because at £202 I think it is slightly too much in comparison to what Yamaha are offering. Any thoughts?

Casio recently sent me the CT-X700 for review and I think it is definitely a nice keyboard for the money. I really don't have much to complain about other than the the reverb effects which, for me are not that great. There are 21 fixed reverb presets but there is not a lot of difference between them. This is especially noticeable on the Church and Cathedral presets. Not only is there very little change if any when switching between them but they don't actually sound like a church or cathedral. Not even close! Now I understand of course we are talking about a budget keyboard here and you can't realistically expect the same sort of effects quality you would get in a much more expensive board but, just the same, if it says Cathedral on the tin that's what I expect to hear. The fact that none of the effects are user adjustable also doesn't help. As for sounds I think Casio have done a pretty good job. The acoustic pianos are perfectly useable, synth sounds are "ok", wind instruments pretty good, guitar I'm not that convinced about but then I find most keyboards in this price range struggle in this respect. I'm a guitarist so perhaps a little hard to please in that respect? Brass again is fine and overall it's a top job for very little money. One thing that definitely surprised me was the keys. I was expecting pretty poor quality at this price level but Casio have done really well here. Ok it's not a weighted hammer action jobby but really it's very good and certainly as good if not better than keyboards costing twice as much. Oh by the way you CAN control the effects over midi so that is one way to solve the above issues. The CT-X700 can respond to the following CC messages (in addition to the usual ones): - Portamento Time (not available on the PSR-E models) - Portamento Switch (not available on the PSR-E models) - Sostenuto (not available on the PSR-E models) - Soft Pedal (not available on the PSR-E models) - Filter Resonance - Release Time - Attack Time - Filter Cutoff - Decay Time (not available on the PSR-E models) - Vibrato Rate (not available on the PSR-E models) - Vibrato Depth (not available on the PSR-E models) - Vibrato Delay (not available on the PSR-E models) - Portamento Control - Reverb Send Level - Chorus Send Level - Delay Send Level (not available on the PSR-E models) The speakers although not high on output are not bad, certainly good enough for home use. One thing I do miss is the pitch bend wheel. It doesn't have one of course and I keep reaching for it. Perhaps they should have sent me the CT-X800 To sum up I would say it's a great entry level keyboard and I would certainly have no problem recommending it as an alternative to a PSR.