Korg SP-280 Digital Piano with Speakers - Black Reviews

I've had my white SP 280 for about 4 years now? There is room for improvement, but all in all it serves it's purpose. The speakers are loud. 22w. Just used it for my student's piano recital at a church. I had technical difficulties with my mixer, so I didn't even connect the piano to my JBL tower speakers (also from Sweetwater). The sound was extremely adequate in the sanctuary. So I will keep it, and next recital will be at a location with an acoustic piano. The SP is NOT very portable because of the legs. They are removable, though. But there's not an SP gig bag that I'm aware of anyway The legs DO add to the sturdiness and sleekness of the keyboard.
Even without too much abuse, the middle D and E keys became very clacky early in its life. I am looking to replace with another piano because of this, and better portability, but don't want to give up the on board speakers, and haven't found anything better even in slightly higher price ranges.
Recommendations I would make to Korg would be fix the clacky key issue ( one of my students bought an SP at my recommendation, and those two keys are starting to do the same thing), change the music rest (it can leave marks on the wall), add maybe some cheesy horn sounds, add an audio input to the front, have a USB MIDI input instead of the 16-pin kind, and make it more portable.
I gave it 5 stars because I do think it's a really nice piano. I guess maybe if it was a little cheaper, the clacky keys wouldn't bother me so much.

I've had this slab for a couple years now therefore I believe I can give an accurate review as the honeymoon period is over. It's an excellent keyboard for the money. Period. Action isn't bad at all. It's actually pretty decent for this price range. The sounds are very very good when amplified. No frills or gimmicks, no plethora of useless plasticky sounds or features that are not needed. It's nowhere close to my rd2000 of course but it is much better than the dgx660 I have to play often (i.e. useless features and sounds). You pay for what you get and that is a very solid basic platform that is actually good enough to gig with. I can go from my rd2000 to the sp280 seamlessly where I have trouble going from the rd2000 to other much pricier keyboards. I have been and still am impressed overall with this keyboard.

I love it !!!! The feel of the keys are sick !!! I used to buy all my online gear from Sam Ash but after a few screw ups by them switched toi Sweetwater best change I ever made !!!

unlike the previous reviewer, I am actually a professional and not using this as a midi controller. First of all, it is not a grand piano with "hammer" action. I paid $560 for mine and it is an excellent apartment digital piano for someone that does not want a console.
2nd, the speakers are better than any thing else in its price range- forget about 22 watt speakers vs 6 or 8 watt speakers the sound is clear.
Piano sample- it sounds natural and pleasant unlike an electronic sounding Casio. Is it Ivory? No? It is very good though.
The bottom line is if you are looking for something $500-$600 all in one unit and not a console than consider this.

Easy to assemble (by my self) and after a quick read of the manual -played thru the sound options A-ok The overall sound is great for the money--The only addition would be some rhythm beats.

Everything has been really said already about this piano, however I'd like to note that the speakers in this model are very nice. It sounds great for $699. The feel of the keys is somewhat sluggish when it comes to very fast repetition. I haven't exactly pinpointed what happens, but you do lose a keystroke somewhere.

The touch can be set from 1-3 (1 being "lightest", which is the equivalent of an action with very low resistance). Even set to 3, which is the max, the piano does have a poor mid-range. When I say poor mid-range, I actually mean it's more or less about 4 magnitudes of volume, as opposed to a natural feel of striking a hammer as hard as you can against a string.

If you aren't looking to replace a grand piano, this is an excellent entry-level piano, especially compared to buying an acoustic upright. This is probably not the choice for the stage ever..although the included pedal has rubber feet that seem like they might grip a floor, but it's a trick. The stock damper pedal included is just about unusable if you have a heavy foot, as the pedal likes to fly. When the pedal is not flying, it is capable of half-pedaling, which is actually very easy to use.

I've owned several keyboards over the last 30 years from cheap home units to high end Korg synth's. I'm using this as a home keyboard for writing and simple playing pleasure and not for gig's.

I'm really pleased with the accurate piano, electric piano, and organ models the SP-280 covers. The keyboard feel is very good, if a slight bit sluggish on key rebound. Overall quality is excellent, especially for the price range. I have demo'ed several Yamaha's in this range but the Korg edges them out with a better keyboard action and more accurate modeling. The SP-280 doesn't have 600+ patches, but it does a superior job on what it has. The on board speakers are surprisingly loud and produce fairly clean, useful tones. Their low end range is a bit weak for an 88 key, but outputting in addition to them into a bass or keyboard amp makes it gig-able.

As for the first reviewer's complaints about not having any "decent dynamic control when playing quietly", they should have read the manual. By simply holding the Touch key and pressing the Up value key once, you increase the key sensitivity above default levels dramatically. You just need to remember to do this each time you power up.

My 280 is a very good piano. It has seen only home use, and I play it almost daily. It has a good feel and more than enough extras for the money. It sounds better than most $500 or $600 machines. The problem is that the keys became very noisy after a few months. By then, it was out of warranty, of course. So I still play it, but it could be better, I think, because its never been abused. My next piano, then, will most likely not be a Korg, but probably will be a Yamaha.

THIS IS A NICE CHEAP LIVE PERFORMANCE BOARD, IT IS DESIGNED SO YOU CAN BE PLAYING PIANO AND EASILY SWITCH TO AN ORGAN LEAD AND THEN EASILY SWITCH BACK TO PIANO WITH STRING FOR THE ENDING. THIS BOARD IS NOT INTENDED FOR PICKY CLASSICAL PIANO PLAYERS, MIDI WORK, ARRANGING, OR TOURING PRO'S, THIS IS A NICE CHEAP LIVE PERFORMANCE OR HOME USE BOARD WITH THE MOST COMMONLY USED INSTRUMENT SOUNDS I HAVE BEEN PERFORMING AND RECORDING FOR 30 YRS, GOOD JOB KORG WITH A NICE CHEAP LIVE PERFORMANCE BOARD.

I am a Recreation Coordinator and I manage several youth and teen performing arts programs (musicals, youth musical festivals, concerts in the park, etc). I have fallen in love with the Korg brand and our contract artists, staff, and youth participants sing their praises! We have two Korgs; the SP-280 and one that is a few trims up from that. Sturdy, reliable, realistic feel, and great sound. I am purchasing one for my family based on buying it at work!

My keyboard arrived in a timely fashion and I was fully updated on it's shipping details, etc. without having to go looking for updates. My Korg SP-280 is very nice and everything works perfectly.

awesome keyboard, nice touch and looks great.

I really likes the sound options, key action was also good. The sound was not enouogh for the size of the church, but connected to the sound system made a grea t difference.

I bought this to teach myself how to play. I can play a little, took lessons years ago but forgot most everything. Some of it coming back as I sit and play more. The ease of playing and the sound is great. I have a real piano, Baldwin upright, but this Korg is just what I wanted for the different sound capability and features it offers. I have owned inexpensive smaller keyboards but they don't come close to this sound.

All the voices are excellent, except for the electric piano voices. They are not what I expected. They are good, just not great. This is a great entry level Korg. If I had it to do over again, I'd buy the more expensive model SV-1. Oh, well, live and learn.

The idea of this piano is great. Built-in speakers, built-in sounds, built-in stand. Unfortunately, if you have an expectation of reasonable dynamic control and come from a grand piano, spend more money on something better. I'll start with the MIDI control issues. I thought I could use it as a reasonable priced controller for my Ivory II sounds. For me, it was impossible to get any decent dynamic control when playing quietly (or even how I normally play on my grand). I inspected the MIDI velocities and can see when playing anything quiet, it always comes out at 1. Play slightly harder and it jumps up to about 32. Getting anywhere in between was an impossible feat. You also can't press a note down and get a velocity of 0 like a real piano or higher quality controllers and the key needs to go all the way down to sound a note. This is not at all how a piano action works; apparently there is no hammer to throw in this action although the marketing says "Natural Weighted Hammer Action." Seems misleading. The same problem exists at higher velocities also but it's most problematic when playing gently (try Moonlight sonata, for example). For a beginner, this piano is probably just fine. For me, it's unusable.

Second; the internal sounds: They are not very good (nor do the speakers sound good to me) and the dynamics of the internal sounds is totally different than when playing through MIDI. There seems to be a huge gap in the lower velocity range when using the internal sounds. All in all, it doesn't work for me. Maybe for someone learning who doesn't mind pounding on the keys it would be OK.

Third; the built-in stand: definitely not something you want to setup and take down often as it is very time consuming. It's also tricky to get it to sit flat on the floor without rocking. Mine had a bent leg and that didn't help.

The good aspects? It's a complete system on it's own. If you don't mind the sound quality and dynamics limitations then it could be right for you. It's not terribly expensive. Not for the pros. I wish I had more good things to say :(

Sounds pretty good, but the simulated weighted keys don't feel very close to a real acoustic.

The big problem for me was that within the first 30 days, the more commonly used keys started to loosen up, and produced a clackety noise greater than what one might expect from a digital piano. I prefer all my keys the same level of tightness.

Fortunately Sweetwater gave me a no-hassle refund when I returned the unit. Thanks, Patrick!