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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Flash! Korg will be announcing a new updated 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.

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