Yamaha PSR-SX600 vs PSR-SX700 keyboards | What are the main differences?

Welcome reader! Today, it’s the Yamaha PSR-SX600 vs Yamaha PSR-SX700.

I’m going to be explaining what I think are the most important differences between these two keyboards from the Yamaha PSR-SX range.

The Yamaha PSR-SX range currently consists of x3 keyboards. PSR-SX600, SX700, and SX900, with the SX900 being the top-of-the-range model. They all sit beneath Yamaha’s flagship arranger model: The Genos.

The difference in price between the PSR-SX600 and PSR-SX700 fluctuates a little bit but is usually around £400-£600.

A summary of the differences

For those of you in a hurry, I’ll do a quick summary of my conclusions first! Yamaha PSR-SX600 vs PSR-SX700 – Here goes…

The PSR-SX600, as a stand-alone keyboard, for its price, and for its size, genuinely impressed me with how powerful and high quality its sound is. The hardware, as always from Yamaha, is absolutely top-notch quality.

The knobs, switches, buttons, etc all feel nice and robust. The chassis itself is stylish and the controls are very well laid out. It’s a gorgeous keyboard and you can have a lot of fun with it!

But in comparison with the PSR-SX700 (and that’s what this blog is about!), the PSR-SX600 begins to feel like a bit of a relic of the past. Why? – Because the PSR-SX700 is built using Yamaha’s latest operating system.

It’s the same operating system that has filtered all the way from the top-of-the-range Genos model.

The crucial difference is that this operating system is controlled with a touchscreen, whereas, the PSR-SX600 is controlled more like a cash machine/ATM with corresponding buttons and dials located around the screen.

Along with this operating system, with a much larger screen, and a chassis that looks the same as the PSR-SX900, when you sit down and power up the PSR-SX700, you feel like you’re playing a keyboard from the upper echelon of arranger keyboards.

In comparison to the PSR-SX600, the PSR-SX700 feels like a jump into the future.

Okay, that’s the summary. Let’s get into the details of what I think the important differences are, shall we?

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Yamaha PSR-SX600 vs PSR-SX700 | What are the differences?

ePianos

Watch Chris explaining the main differences between the Yamaha PSR-SX600 and PSR-SX700 keyboards

The Chassis

As you can see, they’re both quite similar in size. The most significant difference is that the PSR-SX700 is slightly deeper front to back.

The difference in weight between these two models is significant. The PSR-SX600 weighs 8.1kg and the PSR-SX700 weighs 11.5kg.

That difference of weight of just over 3kg (according to the good people at weightofstuff.com) is roughly the same as 3 liters of milk, a carry-on suitcase, x5 basketballs, or a newborn baby. Especially for UK viewers, that’s equivalent to 6 and a half pints of beer.

On the left of the keyboard panels, the PSR-SX600 has a joystick for pitch and modulation control, but the PSR-SX700 has two dedicated controls for each.

Keys and Speakers

Both have 61 keys, 15-watt amplifiers, and built-in speakers.

A noticeable difference here as the PSR-SX600 has x2 12cm speakers, and the PSR-SX700 has x2 13cm AND x2 5cm tweeter speakers. This certainly gives the PSR-SX700 an edge on the overall clarity of the sound.

Screens

The sizes of the screens are significantly different. The PSR-SX600 has a 4.3-inch non-touchscreen, colour screen. The PSR-SX700 has a 7-inch touchscreen, colour screen.

A great deal of what you do on these keyboards, and how you control them, is based on the information presented on these screens. There’s simply no doubt that a larger screen allows for more information to be presented in a clearer way.

Voices (the built-in sounds)

This is one of the major differences between these two models. The PSR-SX600 has 850 voices and the PSR-SX700 has 986. Both have a large selection, right?

The thing is, it’s not just about the quantity. Amongst those additional 136 voices that the PSR-SX700 has will be many more from Yamaha’s more technologically advanced voices (called ‘Super Articulation’, ‘Mega Voice’, ‘Sweet’, etc) that have ‘filtered’ down from the PSR-SX900 and Genos models.

These advanced voices allow much more expression, subtlety, and nuance when you play. In short, they tend to sound a lot more realistic.

The PSR-SX600 will usually have an equivalent voice for these voices but the quality will not be nearly as good. Here are some examples for you.

The Choirs on these two keyboards are hugely different. The PSR-SX600’s choirs simply cannot compete with the SX700’s real samples of boys & mens choirs.

The Organs on PSR-SX700 allow you to minutely control the footage with the ‘Organ Flutes’ category. Seeing the graphic display of the vintage organ settings is another benefit of having an advanced operating system with a large touchscreen.

The PSR-SX700 also has a much larger selection of vintage guitar sounds. Great for those Hank Marvin fans!

One of the major differences is in the Orchestra Strings section. Here the PSR-SX600 has a handful of nice string sounds and variations, but the PSR-SX700 has real samples of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and it sounds fantastic!

Don’t discount the importance of the PSR-SX700’s much larger selection of the lesser-used voice categories like Brass, Woodwind, Choir, Pads, and Bass Guitar.

Remember, it’s these superior voices that make up the automatic rhythms and accompaniments (the backings), so the more variation that is available the more authentic and individual the backing music will sound.

This is particularly important if you’re a creative type that likes to write songs or compose music and you want to use the keyboards’ backings as a basis of your music.

Some of these additional voices on PSR-SX700 are absolutely brilliant and a lot of fun.

Another important difference is that PSR-SX600 only allows you to layer x2 voices simultaneously in the ‘Part Select’ section, whereas, PSR-SX700 allows you x3.

For building your own custom sounds and setups, having x3 layers gives you much more scope.

Backing/Accompaniment Styles

This category is really closely fought for a few reasons and it’s actually hard to call a winner.

While reading through the specification, in true British style I found myself rooting for the underdog and was silently cheering the PSR-SX600 on each time I discovered something it did better than its big brother!

If we’re going simply on numbers, then surprisingly, the PSR-SX600 actually comes out on top!

The PSR-SX600 has 415 accompaniment styles compared to the PSR-SX700 which has 400.

Okay, that’s not a great difference, I know. But remember what I’d said about how the in-built voices actually make up the backing styles?

Well, in reality, that’s what really makes PSR-SX700 the overall better-sounding keyboard when using the automatic accompaniments.

With its much wider selection of more authentic voices, including percussion/drums & bass guitars, I should mention, more of the backing styles consequently have a more realistic sound.

There is also a larger selection of song-specific backing styles on the PSR-SX700. These are accompaniments that are designed to sound just like real songs and some of them are seriously impressive!

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The Booth #4 | Yamaha PSR SX700 | Back To The 80s

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Chris had the Yamaha PSR-SX700 in The Booth for a long playing session focussed on the 1980s styles.

However, it’s not over yet! – When using the backing styles, the little PSR-SX600 has a newer feature than its big brother, namely the ‘Unison & Accent’ functions.

The ‘Unison & Accent’ feature is designed to give the backing style a more human feel. What I mean by this is, when you play harder, the virtual backing band will react and give you some kind of musical accent like a cymbal crash.

You can get quite good with it and make it sound like the bassist, and brass section if following your melody too. It’s a very good feature that genuinely helps make the auto accompaniments sound a little less robotic.

Note, the ‘Unison & Accent’ feature is not available for every single backing style on PSR-SX600, but it does tend to be available for many of the main styles in each musical genre.

For those of you who are big users of the backing styles on this type of keyboard, you’ll be interested to know that the PSR-SX600 has x188 MultiPad banks compared to the PSR-SX700 which has x226.

MultiPads allow players to embellish the backing styles a little further with preset patterns featuring various instruments. Again, they draw from the keyboards’ voice selection, so PSR-SX700 is again, better equipped in this department.

Operating Systems

As you may have guessed from my summary at the beginning, the operating system is, for me, the most important difference between these two models. Let’s take a closer look at them.

The PSR-SX600 has a nice colour screen (but obviously, small in comparison!), and it’s nice, bright, and clear, and tells you what’s happening on the keyboard.

You control it by using the buttons and dials around the screen which is fairly easy to do once you get used to it.

Why do I say ‘once you get used to it?’. Well, it’s because we’re all rather used to using touchscreens these days, aren’t we? And that’s what you’ll find on the PSR-SX700.

Note the large, clear, colour screen. The home page, being large, allows more pertinent information to be displayed and consequently, you feel more in control of the keyboard.

The response from the touchscreen is very quick – just as you’d expect from a touchscreen today – and navigating your way around is made easier as the information presented is larger and clearer, and importantly, managing your song files is as straightforward as using a regular tablet or smartphone.

Recording & Internal Storage

Both of these keyboards have a built-in 16 track recorder. This is absolutely brilliant for creating music. Whether you’re a composer of music or a singer-songwriter.

The PSR-SX600 has a 20MB internal memory.

The PSR-SX700 has a 1GB internal memory. Or put another way, the PSR-SX700 has 1024MB. So, a lot more!

What does this mean in practice? It means that you’re able to store many more of your recordings to the PSR-SX700 memory.

As people who’ve dabbled in this kind of thing will know, there are generally two types of recording file type on these types of keyboards. The MIDI file and the .wav file. Here’s where there is another important difference.

The PSR-SX600 only allows you to save recordings in a MIDI format on its hard drive. You can record a .wav file but you must save the file produced directly to a USB stick via the USB flash drive input.

PSR-SX700 allows MIDI and .wav recordings to be saved to its internal hard drive. This is massively useful for saving and managing your compositions/songs, etc.

Another important difference for you folks that like recording things. The PSR-SX700 also allows STEP RECORDING which allows you to go back into your recorded songs and make detailed changes.

For example, if you played a bum note in the last bar of your 45-minute opus and you want to remove it, instead of re-recording the entire piece, the STEP RECORDING allows you to dive in and correct the note directly.

This is another benefit of the advanced operating system – and larger screen – that the PSR-SX700 uses.

On the PSR-SX600, recording is always ‘one-shot’ and there is no option to alter your recordings after you’ve done them.

Connectivity

Both have USB flash drive connections for external storage.

You can playback .wav files from a USB flash drive on both keyboards. PSR-SX700 allows you to copy and store .wav files on hard drive. PSR-SX600 does not.

PSR-SX600 has no traditional multi-pin MIDI IN OUT connections but does have USB to HOST & DEVICE which can transfer MIDI information.

PSR-SX700 does have the traditional MIDI IN/OUT pins socket and has USB to HOST & DEVICE socket too.

There is no Bluetooth connectivity on either model.

In Conclusion…

Well, as I said before, I found myself rooting for the underdog and in some areas, it really shines. The PSR-SX600 is indeed an impressive-sounding keyboard that you can really enjoy yourself with.

But, in comparison to the PSR-SX700, which after all is the reason for this blog, the PSR-SX600 begins to feel like it belongs in the past.

The PSR-SX700, with the advanced operating system, that it shares with its top-of-the-range big brother, the PSR-SX900, and the flagship arranger – the Genos. Simply works more like an arranger keyboard should work in the 2020s.

Ultimately, after playing these two keyboards for a very long time now, I just find that I can’t go back to the PSR-SX600. It’s too fiddly to use and navigating the operating system, although by no means impossible, just doesn’t flow as it does on PSR-SX700.

There’s nothing worse than being clogged up in a poor operating system when you want to be making music.

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Chris Hammond

Manager at ePianos

Chris handles all of our ePianos marketing, and is responsible for the creation and production of the majority of our product videos. Chris is also one of our top blog writers, having extensive knowledge of keyboard instruments, years of experience in musical instrument retail, and a background in live performance and composition.

sales@epianos.co.uk chrisonpiano