invicta alec

C'mon Brad.......forget about all the fiddling about unboxing, let's cut to the chase! Are you thrilled with it? What do you think of the sounds it makes? Is it the best thing since sliced bread? Alec.

in a word......delicate. Very delicate! Alec.

Ken, I owe it to you, to keep you in the loop. Today I'm back in my home, this time last week I was undergoing unexpected major heart surgery following a heart attack. I know that I'm about to start many weeks, if not months, of recuperation. For quite how long it will delay our proposed on line training sessions I'm not sure. Bear with me please. Alec.

Ken Madell, Hey what a neat idea! Thanks buddy. I'm going to be travelling abroad for the next couple of weeks, so can I contact you again when I get back? Alec.

£299 is the UK price for X3000 .... that's U$399. Alec.

I've only had my CT-X3000 for a couple of weeks but one thing I'm really enjoying is the look and feel of the keys. For me the touch sensitivity levels are nicely balanced. It was something I noticed (and liked) straight away when trying out the 3000 in the music store. I think Mike Martin should promote this aspect in later CT-X videos. Alec.

Hi everyone, This is not really a review, I'm not experienced enough to to pronounce on what is good, better or best. Apologies in advance therefore to you experienced guys but maybe beginners might glean something here. I bought a Yamaha PSR E313 about twelve years ago and dabbled, eventually giving up when reaching my nemesis of not being able to read music quickly enough to progress. I went on to buying a lefty Yamaha Pacifica electric guitar and fared a little better aided by the more simplistic "tab" notation. A couple of years ago I acquired a Casio CTX-900 very cheaply and in honesty fell down at the sight reading hurdle once again. I've decided to give it one more try, spurred on by watching eight and ten year olds in the family making steady progress through their lessons at school. Thinking that things must have advanced since my original Yamaha E313 I decided to treat myself to a new keyboard (thinking the amount of money spent might spur me on 🙂 ). Reading all the hype surrounding the new Casio I decided I needed to try one out. Its very tempting in these days of internet buying to be seduced by the lower prices than the brick and mortar music stores can offer, but I needed to see for myself. Here, a big shout out is in order for Hobgobblin music store in Canterbury (UK). They responded quickly to my emails and yes, they had the new CTX in stock. Nothing was too much bother for them, answering my questions first, demoing the machine and then setting me up in the shop with a stool and headphones and a CT-X3000 to sit and try "for as long as you want to". The first thing that I like about the CT-X is the fact that it has "box" shaped keys, they look better. Not that I knew it at the time, but the touch sensitivity was on its "heavy" setting and the first few notes that I pressed made absolutely no sound at all - me being used to the lightweight key press demands of my old CTK-900s "diving board" keys. In all a much more satisfying and real piano like experience enabling more expression to be put into playing. What I really hoped for was to be satisfied by the sound quality. Yes, I've listened to all the videos on YouTube but its not the same as sitting in a store and listening for real. Stage piano 001 was the first thing I heard from it. Superb! (especially considering the price of the machine) and then the guy demonstrated Nylon guitar 113 (SOLD at this point, but I wasn't going to tell him that). I went out of the shop to feed the car park meter a few more coins and returned to sit contentedly in the corner with headphones on exploring to my hearts content. I'm now the proud owner of a new CT-X3000 and if you are just starting out looking for a machine I'd wholeheartedly recommend it. It looks cool, feels and sounds great. As a final thought, the 6w + 6w speakers made a very decent amount of (distortion free, as far as I could tell) noise when the guy was demoing the machine to me. This was a concern that I had that may have lead me to buy a 5000 instead, but 6w+6w is more than enough if you just play at home. I had thought about a 76 key keyboard and was briefly shown the WK-7600 first and while it is impressive looking and feature rich, its sound didn't excite me as much as the CT-X. I have agreed with the salesperson that IF (when?) Casio put the AiX sound engine into a 76 key machine I'll trade my 3000 in and buy one - IF that is, I can get to grips with this damn sight reading! Alec.

George, now that you've had your 5000 for a week and presumably time to play with it, are you pleased with your purchase? I have looked and found zero reviews by new owners of it. I'm pretty sure that I'll be following you and handing over my £389 soon! Alec.

Brad, just as a heads up............CT-X3000/5000 are already available here in the UK.

Thanks for your report George. So were you impressed by the 3000/5000? Is the sound as good as all the hype I've been reading? Bottom line is - are you going to buy one? Alec.

In this past couple of weeks, I've read tons of reviews and watched endless YouTube videos. Unusually for me, I've resisted the temptation to splash the cash too soon. My thinking at the moment is if I'm going to get seriously back into keyboard playing then I'm wondering if I should be looking at 76 keys? The Casio WK-7600 seems to have endless features and is a likely purchase for me. Having said that, it is a 5 year old design now and I can't help but think about the (reportedly) amazing new sounds of the 61 key CT-X5000. The only music store I have within easy reach sells Yamaha but not Casio 😕 Alec.

Looking forward to what you have to say George! Alec.

Thanks for your reply Brad. Bearing in mind that I'm not at all experienced, I'm sure that even lower end keyboards will have sufficient features to keep me happy but its the quality of the sound that interests me. I picked up the CTK-900 a few years ago second hand for £25! It has spent long periods unused in closets, suffered two or three house moves, been used only intermittently yet still appears to perform well. I guess I'm saying that I like its apparent durability and ruggedness. I like its back lit LCD display (the bigger the better as far as I'm concerned). Being a left hander I appreciate the decent number of buttons that are on that side! What I absolutely dislike are the thin plasticky key tops (I don't know the technical description for them) but surely full depth keys would be less likely to rattle? From its specification the speakers are 3w and has 32 note (max) polyphony and necessarily a 10 year old sound engine. I'm hoping that with the passage of time, the higher specifications and new sound engine of something like the CTX-3000 would make a noticeable difference to the quality of the sound. Or do I need to dig more deeply into my pockets before I can really notice improved sound quality over what I already have? I'm sure that pretty much all modern keyboards would include the basics like touch sensitivity, auto harmonise, layers, split and mixer functions. When the great day comes and I start hitting all the right notes consistently I'll want to know the keyboard is doing its best to highlight the fact! Alec.

Hi everyone, this is my first post on the forum. After gathering dust for a few years my CTK-900 has been exhumed and I'm itching to get playing again. In truth I've got a little bit of cash burning a hole in my pocket and I fancy treating myself to something new. I'm aware that the 900 has been around for 10 plus years and assume that things must have moved along from a technical point of view. I'm looking for something at least its equal specification wise. Should I be looking at the new CTX 3000 / 5000 or is there something else? This is purely for my own enjoyment at home, I'm not a complete beginner but I'm not that much further along the road either. Alec.