The Casio Privia PX-130 Digital Piano is a fantastic entry-level digital piano. It’s one of the cheapest digital pianos currently available on the market today, yet is powerful and versatile enough for the beginner hobbyist player or the advanced pianist seeking a portable alternative to their piano.
First, let’s get the brand name out of the way: Casio historically has been associated with various electronic gadgets including calculators and watches. No true “performer” or piano-lover would have even considered the brand in the recent past, as its line of offerings seemed merely to be toys, featuring plastic-like keys and robotic sound quality.
Fast forward to today, and this stigma is no longer true. Stage performers can be routinely seen with, and are PROUD to be seen with, their Casio keyboards or digital pianos. Casio had managed to establish itself as a leading brand in the manufacturing of digital pianos.
Let’s take a closer look at the main advertised features of Casio Privia PX-130 88-Key Digital Keyboard.
Contents
Casio Privia PX-130 Digital Piano Features
- Size: (Width x Depth x Height) 52.05” x 11.26” x 5.31”
- Weight: 24.7 lbs
- 88 weighted, scaled hammer-action keys
- 128-note polyphony
- 16 tones (with layer and split)
- Built-in metronome
- Duet mode, for two simultaneous players
- 2 Track, 1 Song Recorder
- USB type B
- 2 headphone jacks
- Built-in 8W speakers
- Included AC adapter
The PX-130 digital piano is one of the newer products from the Privia family of digital pianos by Casio. It boasts two key technological features from Casio:
- new grand piano samples which give the piano keyboard its realistic acoustic piano-like sound (advertised as “unprecedented sound quality” or “unprecedented level of realism and expression”), and
- Tri-Sensor scaled hammer action which means the touch of the keys emulates very closely the weight, feel and resistance of the keys of a traditional piano keyboard, all while not affecting the portability of the musical instrument.
So, does the Casio Privia PX-130 digital piano live up to those advertised features? The answer is a resounding yes, as evidenced by many customer testimonials and reviews floating around. Considering the price range of this product (you can get it for less than $500 if you know where to look!), this is pretty amazing. It wasn’t conceivable in the past that a digital piano or electronic keyboard could ever feature realistic weighted keys and even piano sounds for less than $700, let alone $500, but the Casio PX 130 keyboard has changed that today.
Casio Privia PX-130 Digital Piano Reviews and Testimonials by Satisfied Customers
Just take a look at these overwhelmingly positive testimonials of the Casio Privia PX-130 digital piano on Amazon.com from satisfied customers, ranging from complete beginners to the piano, to advanced pianists who are accustomed to the sound, feel and touch of the traditional acoustic grand piano:
“…As for feel, when playing, I have to remind myself that it is not an acoustic. My fingers are convinced that these keys are attached to a big, wooden cabinet in the form of a traditional piano. I did not get a chance to see one of these in a store before buying. I was worried the keys would feel cheap. Needless to say, my expectations were blown away from the first touch. You will not be disappointed…
“…The instrument sounded excellent. The weight and feel was that of a REAL piano…
“…My daughters music/piano teacher was impressed with this technology. It plays and feels like a real piano…
Casio Privia PX-130 Digital Piano Review: Any other attractive features besides sounding and feeling superb?
So, the Casio Privia PX-130 Digital Piano sounds and feels great, but does it look great? (Hey, some people care about aesthetics, not just acoustics!) The answer, as you might expect, is yes. This digital piano is sleekly designed with minimal clutter. It comes with very few buttons, lights, and has no screen that detract away from the main purpose of the piano. These unnecessary “features” usually only serve to make the instrument look like a toy.
At just a little under 25 lbs, the Casio piano PX 130 is one of the lightest keyboards currently available. This makes it highly portable and is an extremely attractive option if you need to lug it around for your performance gigs, or even to your piano classes.
Another main attraction of the Casio Privia PX-130 digital piano is the ability to connect not just 1 but 2 headphones. Connecting headphones automatically cuts off sound from the built-in speakers, so you can play to your heart’s content in the middle of the night without worry of complaints from family or neighbors.
So, why would you ever need 2 headphones? When you’re playing duet, of course! The Duet mode allows the keyboard to be split into two equal ranges, and this is a great feature for beginners to the piano. It allows a teacher and a student to play simultaneously, and with 2 headphones, allows for more accurate pinpointing of mistakes.
Finally, the built-in USB MIDI interface of the Casio Privia PX-130 digital piano allows you to connect the piano to your computer. This allows you to use the digital piano as a MIDI controller (i.e. you press keys on the digital piano, but sound comes out of your computer, or your computer performs some other function based on what keys you pressed. This is useful if you are somehow unimpressed by the tones available on the keyboard). It also allows for easy transfer of songs from your digital piano to your computer and vice versa, allowing you to save the songs you’ve recorded on the piano onto your computer.
Casio PX 130 Review: Surely there’s a downside?
The only main downside to the Casio Privia PX-130 digital piano is its lack of tones other than the grand piano tone and a few other tones. However, you do have the ability to layer tones (meaning two different tones sound at once); layering piano and strings sound pretty amazing! Unless you actually care about having other tones besides the default 16 already installed in the piano, this “limitation” (if it can be called that; consider how many tones a traditional acoustic piano has!) should not bother you at all. It is in fact the main reason the price of this digital piano is so low. If this does bother you, then you’ll likely be interested in the Casio Privia PX-330 digital piano instead.
Here’s the full list of 16 tones that the Casio PX 130 digital piano comes with:
3 grand piano tones: classic, modern, variation
3 electric piano tones: normal, FM, 60’s
harpsichord
vibraphone
pipe organ
jazz organ
2 electric organ tones
2 strings tones
2 bass tones
Additional Casio Privia PX-130 digital piano accessories to consider
If you are thinking of purchasing the Casio digital piano PX 130, be sure to take into consideration the following optional accessories to add into your budget:
- Casio Privia PX-130 digital piano with CS-67 stand and SP-32 pedal board
- CS-67 Stand: If you plan to use your Casio Px 130 Privia 88 key digital piano mostly at home only, then set it at the perfect playing height using this Casio PX 130 stand. As a bonus, the CS-67 dark wooden stand actually makes a pretty attractive home decor.
- SP-32 three pedal unit (for the CS-67 stand): This plastic pedal board emulates the 3 foot pedals (soft, sostenuto and damper) on a traditional piano, and attaches very easily to the CS-67 stand. The grey color of the pedal assembly complements the color of the digital piano extremely well.
Casio Privia PX-130 Review: The Bottomline
The Casio Privia PX-130 digital piano lives up to, and even exceeds our expectations. It has an elegant design unencumbered by feature bloat, and emulates very closely the sound quality and feel of a traditional acoustic piano, while still remaining extremely lightweight and highly portable. Whether you’re a complete beginner or an advanced piano player looking for a portable alternative to your grand piano, and whether you plan to use it for home, church, school or on stage performance, this digital piano is a great option. In spite of the incredibly low price, which actually places it in the category of entry-level digital pianos, it does not sacrifice quality at all. If you are only interested in the grand piano tone and do not care to have a large number of other built-in tones, then this is an ideal digital piano for you.
