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Think long and hard about buying a Kronos. It's great, until
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asteralesmusic



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 13

PostPosted: Tue Feb 11, 2020 10:52 pm    Post subject: Think long and hard about buying a Kronos. It's great, until Reply with quote

Think long and hard and consider this. Figuring it's not exceptionally common, but my touch screen (just the touch interface, not the display) went out - so no programming anything etc - all I can do is boot to a setlist and scroll through some sounds. Pretty inconvenient to say the least when I use it for programming sounds for music/theater productions. Estimated wait time for the part is 4-6 weeks, and it's been 3 weeks already since I took it to an authorized repair facility.
I think this is ridiculous. For a product that is still currently being sold at major retailers for upwards of $3-4K, that there isn't ready availability to obtain parts quickly. This is very disappointing to say the least and I'd have a hard time recommending the Kronos just based on this experience alone. I mean, it's a fantastic workstation otherwise but. This simple little deal - maybe 1 -2 hours of labor - is going to put it out of commission for 2+ months?! Unbelievable.
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Dniss
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 11, 2020 11:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That's the thing with electronics, it's a perpetual renewal.
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GregC
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 11, 2020 11:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

under warranty ?

Do you gig heavily ?

If you gig, how is your K transported ?

how many yrs old ?

buy it used or new ?

Without knowing a few details, its difficult to comment
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tunaman
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 11, 2020 11:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sucks to have the display go out, but in the mean time have you thought about using the Kronos Remote app to allow you to view and/or manipulate the controls?
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Rigel
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 12, 2020 4:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My advice: get it repaired.
By the way, everyone here has a Kronos already, so no need to tell us not to buy one..
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karmathanever
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 12, 2020 4:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

    Think long and hard about buying any keyboard. It's great, until.....
....it goes wrong....

Get it fixed under your warranty - this is not a common problem.

Sorry you've been unlucky

Good luck

Very Happy
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darwinwiebe



Joined: 11 Nov 2016
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Location: Alberta, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Feb 12, 2020 10:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sometimes crap happens. Things fail, but you can’t write off a product due to a few issues. If it was widespread, affecting a huge number of units, then caution is warranted.

My Kronos2 was a store display unit, so it was exposed to environmental conditions before I bought it. That machine spent over two years in the sleeper of my Peterbilt tractor/trailer unit which is not known to be the smoothest ride. So it experienced conditions normally harmful. It did experience a couple higher shock incidents during its life.

I still have that unit and it is still going strong. Never had a single issue with it. Would not stop me from getting another. Mine is the 61 key, but I’d like the 88 key unit. Size constraints necessitated the smaller one.

It rode in a Gator soft case. Had a hard one, but it was too large for the space. It was also covered using a body pillow case with a broken zipper for a dust cover.
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Devnor
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 12, 2020 2:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I feel your pain. The display in my new Fantom 7 crapped out and I'm preparing myself for the extended stay at the service center. My friends that had their Korgs in the shop waited months for a fix. So I'm not sure why replacement parts are such a long leadtime item in the USA. Good luck.
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GregC
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 12, 2020 2:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

what seems to contribute to the the very long lag time on spare parts is that Kronos is an assembled device.

IOW, the LCD/touch interface is a 3rd party part. Its likely to have a defect rate.

And how does Korg figure out how much supply to 're-order ' to support all K's sold after 9-10 years ? And to feed the numerous Korg auth repair centers + country part distributors.

Back in the days of covered wagons, businesses use to have a 'reorder trigger'.
IOW, when total part or stock hit a certain numerical threshold the business would go out and purchase the needed supply.

I think the key here is for Korg to keep track of part supply at each country parts distributor. And all that requires a good system and software to capture the moving data points. The service centers do not carry part inventory from all appearances.

Given the very long lead times for an essential part, I have some concern about the bigger picture behind parts supply.
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GregC
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 12, 2020 3:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rigel wrote:
My advice: get it repaired.
By the way, everyone here has a Kronos already, so no need to tell us not to buy one..


Thank you. After 9 years, us long time Kronos owners have mostly seen it all. And discussed it, too.

This brings up another prior discussion point, about having suitable backup if your keyboard fails and is out of commission for 4-8 weeks.

This is where I get yelled at and called crazy. Here goes. If you[or anyone] have a high profile gig schedule and your livelihood depends on Kronos [ or Fantom}, I would make an effort to have 2 Kronos'. 1 for the gigs and 1 for the home studio.

sure, thats crazy expensive.

A long shot alternative is to have a few local Kronos friends, that are willing to bail you out [or anyone] for the gig, and borrow their Kronos.

I know of a keyboardist in a local band [ had several hits in the 80's] that has 4 Kronos'. For a pro performing keyboardist, I don't believe thats unusual.

if someone has week end gigs, doing covers, a less expensive Korg, or Motif, or a MainStage rig w/controller might be practical backups.

IOW, if I gigged, I would have a backup keyboard. Many roll the dice with 1 board but this is subjective stuff.
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asteralesmusic



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 12, 2020 4:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It was well taken care of, transported in a heavily padded flight case, nothing extreme, just normal use for a gigging musician. I don't care about the repair cost which is about $300, though it should still be under warranty. Good on whoever can afford to keep a couple $4k boards on hand and not use one but I think it's rather presumptuous to say to someone whose situation you don't know. Yes, things break etc. That's not the point. The point is that for a product that retails at that price point, not discontinued and available at most major music retailers, 4-6 week turnaround for a relatively simple repair is unacceptable. I love the Kronos and have been very vocal with other musicians and people who ask about it being the "last keyboard I'll probably have to buy". This experience has changed that and although I'm a tiny little peon in the scheme of things, I will no longer be a gung ho advocate.
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GregC
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 12, 2020 5:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You didn't state if you bought your K new or used. If you bought it used, it had some history - and these details matter.

Anyway, there is an inherent assumption that if something is expensive, it better be darn near perfect. And always work well under normal circumstances.

If a person can buy a high priced new car. An expensive new home. An expensive computer. Either item can fail, have surprise problems.

Personally, in this day and age, I don't assume much.
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asteralesmusic



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 12, 2020 6:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The point isn't expecting it to work perfectly no matter what. The point is it's not unreasonable to expect a manufacturer of a currently produced product to have the ability to support potential product defects in an efficient and timely manner. It should not take 2 months for a component essential to the operation of the instrument to be replaced/repaired. Based on this situation, I don't trust Korg to do that and that will influence my decisions and opinion of the company and their products in the future.
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GregC
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 12, 2020 6:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

asteralesmusic wrote:
The point isn't expecting it to work perfectly no matter what. The point is it's not unreasonable to expect a manufacturer of a currently produced product to have the ability to support potential product defects in an efficient and timely manner. It should not take 2 months for a component essential to the operation of the instrument to be replaced/repaired. Based on this situation, I don't trust Korg to do that and that will influence my decisions and opinion of the company and their products in the future.


I posted this above since you raised the issue. And I am interested in solving problems:

"what seems to contribute to the the very long lag time on spare parts is that Kronos is an assembled device.

IOW, the LCD/touch interface is a 3rd party part. Its likely to have a defect rate.

And how does Korg figure out how much supply to 're-order ' to support all K's sold after 9-10 years ? And to feed the numerous Korg auth repair centers + country part distributors.

Back in the days of covered wagons, businesses use to have a 'reorder trigger'.
IOW, when total part or stock hit a certain numerical threshold the business would go out and purchase the needed supply.

I think the key here is for Korg to keep track of part supply at each country parts distributor. And all that requires a good system and software to capture the moving data points. The service centers do not carry part inventory from all appearances.

Given the very long lead times for an essential part, I have some concern about the bigger picture behind parts supply."

Since we are all vulnerable to the parts supply issue, and its nothing new under the sun, the Kronos owner should have a strategy to deal with the potential down time.

None of us are going to change how Korg operates. And knowledge is power.
And no one likes surprises.

A new or potential Kronos owner can easily use this forum to assess the risk/reward of owning a Kronos.
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asteralesmusic



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 12, 2020 6:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rigel wrote:
My advice: get it repaired.
By the way, everyone here has a Kronos already, so no need to tell us not to buy one..


Yep. I am getting it repaired which sounds like replacing an component essential to the operation will take 2 months.

I'm sure lots of people here have a Kronos already, but I know I went to several forums etc before I decided to buy. I may have made another decision if I'd seen this post. I am not implying this is a common defect, but as I posted above, the way a company handles defects and supports products they are currently producing and selling at major retailers is important.
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