SEIKO Seiko Metronome SQ70

I got the item and turned it on and tested with another quartz metronome and it kept perfect time with the other one. Nice. I turned it off and went to turn it back on and it never turned back on! I ordered a replacement and it did not work at all! I did batter checks each time with new batteries. THere is an optional DC wire hook up for it, but these are not provided with the unit. Bad show. The last Quartz metronome I got from Seiko was awesome and lasted many, many years until the headphone jack craped out from normal use after many years so I got my money’s worth on the first one. I returned it of course.

If you’re like most pianists, you’ve been led to believe (as I was) that the “best” metronomes are the wood ones made by Wittner. Beautifully crafted in Germany, those metronomes are the ones you see in every movie, documentary, or tv show about a pianist. They feature an actual pendulum adjusted by sliding a weight up and down and make a very satisfying acoustic click sound (the highest-end models even have an actual bell that can be adjusted to ring at certain beats). I’ve had one for over twenty years.

All that being said, the Seiko just crushes it in every way UNLESS you 1) don’t like either of the click sounds or 2) don’t like plugging in your metronome (or changing 9V batteries, if you prefer not to use an AC adapter). First of all, it’s a quartz metronome, so it’s tempo is perfectly accurate. One of the first things I did was set both metronomes to 120 bpm and sync them up. Within 5 seconds it was obvious that the wooden Wittner simply didn’t keep as accurate of time. I never realized it, but as the Wittner winds down (you have to wind them instead of using a power supply), its timing slows down slightly. You’d never notice it unless you synced it against a quartz or digital metronome, but it definitely does. Download a metronome app and you’ll see and hear what I mean. Secondly, the Seiko has a volume control, which, for me, is a revelation. I like it because I can make it soft, but if loud is what you’re looking for, this Seiko gets LOUD! Last but not least, it never exhibits the annoying sympathetic vibrations that Wittners occasionally do on larger grands.

Now you might be wondering, “Why not just use a free metronome app?” Well, for starters, the Seiko props up very nicely, and it’s extremely easy to see and change the tempo by spinning the wheel adjustment. With any digital metronome, you’re putting it in your hand and pressing buttons. Plus the Seiko looks good sitting on your piano – very professional (hey, it matters). I hate to come off as a snob about this kind of thing, but if you’re a serious pianist, you should have a dedicated metronome, and after using over ten different kinds, I promise that this is the one to get. It does everything you want a metronome to do. I sold my Wittner on ebay for $112, so the Seiko is a bargain besides.

Note: I feel I should compare this to the Wittner MT70, which is very similar. While the MT70 offers more beat options, several things make it inferior to the Seiko. 1) the stand stinks. I’ve had it fall over more times than I can count. 2) it only has one click sound instead of two, so you’d better like that sound. 3) no AC adapter plug, which means batteries only. 4) the tempo adjustment dial is smaller, harder to read, and trickier to turn. With the Seiko you can use one hand to adjust the tempo dial. With the MT70, you have to hold it and use your thumb. Trust me, it’s not as good, and I wanted to like the MT70 because it’s cheaper.

Bottom line: the Seiko SQ70 is the best piano metronome I’ve ever used.

PROS
+ Volume control
+ Beat “bell” accents on 1,2,3,4,5 or 6 beat, or no accent.
+ Choice of Wood block 1, Wood block 2, or the bell (2 choice) based on s1/s2 switch position.
+ Dial font is black on white and slightly larger than competing products, still not that large but better
+ Ability to run on a 9V power supply (although not provided and should be at the $70 price point)
+The concept of an added larger speaker is good ( but the implementation here isn’t.)

CONS
– Disappointing volume given the added size and cost of a speaker as big as the dial.
– Volume control didn’t really operate over the whole range it was essentially “concentrated” with all the adjustment in one part of the control – maybe a bad part or else poor choice of pot taper for the application.
– Power switch is a pressure sensitive push button as opposed to a slider, looks like future fail point.
– Back support stand seems very flimsy

SUMMARY
It’s a nice metronome with broad capabilities and a better feature set than most of the dial metronomes. I think many people will be disappointed by the lack of really any substantial volume increase over most cheaper dial metronomes. Volume control, beat accents and choice of 2-3 different tones are positives, as well as the ability to power with a 9V battery OR a 9V wall wart.

DETAILS
It’s a nice metronome with good capabilities and as a dial style metronome, still better than any app, and any “digital” metronome you have to “program” or fiddle with a lot of buttons to adjust. At least as a guitar player, when doing speed drills you want to be able to instantly bump the metronome 1 notch and get right back to playing. So dial metronomes are the way to go for that. But this one fell WAY short of my expectations at the price point. I returned it in favor of another Matrix MR-600 which has many of the same features at half the price.

Most notably, it was only slightly louder than any of my other metronomes. I expected this to be capable of substantially more volume given the large amount of space in the design dedicated to a larger speaker. Clearly they need to amplify the signal more. The volume adjustment was also poor with the adjustability being concentrated in about 1/10 of the knob rotation. This could be a bad part, or could be poor design and selection of the wrong “taper” on the potentiometer used. Or just the cheap quality and poor QA of today’s asian consumer electronics.

My other big concern is the power switch. It’s a soft push button the front, and you have to hold it down vs. just press it gently once to turn the device on. As a result, it’s human nature to push it harder when it doesn’t turn on with the first push. You can unlearn that behavior, but it’s bad design. As a result, I expect that power button will be the failure point on these models. I feel they should have put a slider switch on the side – which is deliberate and effective, and less prone to early failure. If this was a $35 metronome I’d worry less about that but at $70, I’d be mad if the power switch failed after a few months or a couple years.

I liked the slightly larger font of the dial numbering, but the INDICATOR mark that shows your setting is grey against a mostly grey ring – I guess with the idea that it greys out the little white tick mark. I’d have preferred a much more obvious marker.

I thought the choice of two tones (and two bells) were good. I liked the sound, and the beat accent feature. If you set it on 0 you get just the wood block. On 1, you get just the bell. Combined with the s1/s2 slider, that gives you four tone choices for a continuous beat. And of course you can use a block + bell accent on 2,3,4,5,6 and have your choice of two options. Given the price point, it seems like maybe they could have inexpensively added a few additional choices, but it’s good and certainly all you really need.

The addition of a 9V power supply input is great, but at $70 they probably should have included the power supply. Regardless, I like that feature and if this produced more volume, I could see how it would burn through 9V batteries and that would be more valuable. But honestly, because it doesn’t really get very loud, I’m not sure of the battery life. If it’s like my other metronomes, they last a long time even with a lot of use.

The much larger size would be ok if it came with more volume coming out of that larger speaker. But it didn’t, so that’s disappointing.

I’m going back to the Matrix MR-600 which offers volume control, a black and white dial, and beat accents for about half the price of this unit. If this one had more volume and the power button wasn’t so wanky, I’d have kept it. But I returned it.

コンパクトタイプのSQ-50Vと比較すると
上位機種のSQ-70は「音量が大きいこと。」が一番の利点。

手軽さを求めるなら、SQ-50Vをすすめます。

SQ-70の改善点をあげるとすれば
電源を入れるときに“１秒の長押し”ではなく
通常のボタン押しで電源が入るように
誤電源ONを回避するために“Hold”ボタンを作ってほしかった。
電源を入れるのが意外にめんどうくさい。

SQ-50V、SQ-70はとても気に入っているので
後継機ではぜひ改善してほしい。

Loud enough to hear while practicing

This is not like the other quartz metronome, it is well built, and it doesn’t feel or look cheap at all. The sound comes through very well, to turn it on one must hold down the power button. Btw this is the only one that comes with a 9v battery already included.