LD Systems ANNY powered speakers
LD Systems will feature the ANNY Series of portable battery powered PA systems. There are two models: a small 8″+1″ carry-about (8.8kg) with tilt-back and a larger 10″+1″ roll-about (18kg) model. Buskers should check these out.
LD Systems ANNY 8 and ANNY 10
Both models have well-featured mix and effect capabilities. The ANNY 8 is $550 in black. You get to choose your color for a small up-charge.
Headrush FRFR GO
Yeah, the Headrush FRFR GO is intended for guitar and bass. “FRFR” means full range flat response, and keyboardists should give FRFR products a test when looking for amplification. Headrush, BTW, are part of the InMusic product conglomerate and the Headrush amps have more than a passing resemblance to models by Alesis and Alto.
Headrush FRFR GO portable amp
The FRFR Go is 30 Watts (24 Watts on battery) into two 3-inch speakers with rear bass port. No, you won’t shake the walls. However, you will save your back:
- 12.6″ x 7.2″ x 5.9″ (32 x 15 x 18.4 cm)
- 7.4 pounds (3.35kg)
The 1/4 inch input is LINE level because the FRFR GO expects to be driven by a direct amp modeler. Why not a line-level synth? There is a 3.5mm AUX input, too.
Controls are simple: INPUT volume, bass, treble and MAIN volume. The bass and treble allow adjustments for the room/venue. Frequency response is 75Hz to 20kHz (-10dB) and maximum SPL is 109.4dB.
The one big unanswered wish is an XLR output. Oh, to be able to use the FRFR GO as a personal monitor tied into a PA! Alto, are you listening?
Oh, yeah, $149 USD. 🙂
On-Stage, again
Still more from On-Stage.
The On-Stage OS TGA01 is a rechargeable (via USB-C) travel amp with up to seven hours playing time. It’s 4 inches tall and weighs 0.65 pounds. The TGA01 is not much bigger than tiny plug-in headphone amps.
On-Stage TGA01 portable guitar amplifier
The TGA01 drives 5 Watts into two 1.75″ full-range speakers. A button selects overdrive (OD) or clean. There are three knobs: gain, tone and volume. This baby clearly targets guitar. The TGA01 has a headphone OUT and Bluetooth IN.
On-Stage KS1335 keyboard Z stand
The KS1355 is a new single-tier keyboard Z stand:
- Height adjustment: 20.5″ to 33.5″
- Width adjustment: 21″ to 34″
I like the smaller width as it’s difficult to find an X stand that works with mini keyboards. Weight capacity is 400 pounds — over-kill for a mini keyboard!
No prices for the TGA01 or KS1355 at this time.
Whither new keyboards?
In a major announcement, Nord have introduced the two manual Nord Organ 3. Here’s the new stuff:
- Enhanced B3 organ model with improved chorus/vibrato
- Improved Farfisa and Vox organ models
- Bass synth options (think “pedals”)
- Rotary speaker emulation
- British amp speaker emulation
- Spring reverb
- New modulation effects
- Triple sensor keybeds
- New front panel with OLED display
A two manual organ (37.5 pounds, 17kg) is waaaaaaay too much for me to haul around and the Nord Organ 3 will land around $3,250 USD. Still, I’m glad to see Nord innovating and leading. This will force the competition to meet the challenge and maybe I’ll get a single manual organ at a reasonable weight and price — someday.
Clavia Nord Organ 3 dual manual organ
Flash! Korg will be announcing a new updated KRONOS.
Korg New KRONOS
So, where are the other new keyboards? I’m not seeing any interesting keyboard rumors for NAMM 2025. I expect the daikaiju to feature their most recent releases:
- Yamaha
- SEQTRAK music production studio
- PSR-SX720 and PSR-SX920 arranger workstations
- CLP-800 series Clavinova digital pianos
- EZ-310 portable keyboard
- Korg
- New KRONOS
- Grandstage X stage piano
- microKORG2 synthesize/vocoder
- multi/poly analog modeling synthesizer
- nanoKEY Fold foldable MIDI keyboard
- PianoRec digital piano recorder for smart phone
- Roland
- Earth Piano software instrument
- JUNO-D6, D7, D8 synthesizer
- Bridge CAST ONE dual-bus streaming mixer
- BOSS KATANA-MINI X, GX-10, SDE-3, etc.
- Casio
- AP-300 Celviano digital piano
- AP-S200 Celviano slim profile digital piano
Yamaha are teasing new announcements to be made on January 23: winds, drums and percussion, and PRO audio. I think they will be focusing on the TransAcoustic (TAG3 C 2nd generation) guitars and the gee-whiz TA technology within. TAG3 C TransAcoustic guitars ($1,700 USD) have built-in looper, reverb, chorus and Bluetooth.
If I need to go out on a limb, I predict an upgraded Stage YC Mark 2 (YC61 mk2, YC73 mk2, YC88 mk2). I stand by my blog suggesting a unified (organ+piano) professional stage keyboard line, that is, the PRO-level niche above the CKs.
Kawai will show the ES60 entry-level slab piano. Kawai are teasing two new “groundbreaking” products.
ASM Hydrasynth 888 Units synthesizer
You won’t have any trouble spotting the orange ASM Hydrasynth Explorer 888 models. The 888s are a compact 37-key Hydrasynth with a mid-sized polyphonic keybed. We’ll find out what “mid-sized” means. The 888 Units edition is $650 USD.
Odisei Music are rolling out the electronic Travel Clarinet. The Travel Clarinet joins the successful Kickstarter Travel Sax. It has 50 internal sound presets, USB-C connectivity, battery power, and an internal reference speaker.
The Kiviak Instruments WoFI Portable Sampler Keyboard with WiFi ($800) is now shipping and is in stock.
Copyright © 2025 Paul J. Drongowski
