Tom,
Since reading your impressions of the sounds, I went back and listened to several minidisk recordings of myself on both the 9000 and the 2000. I honestly can't tell the difference without listening for style differences.
But then, about the only woodwinds I use are a couple of saxs-Growl and Sweet. I played trumpet for years, and think the Sweet Trumpet is o.k.--not wonderful but as good as most keyboard trumpets. I love the Growl Sax! Surprisingly, I think the Growl Sax on the PSR8000 sounds better than the 2K or the 9k. Probably effects.
While doing this, I also played some recordings of the X1. As is generally conceded, the overall sound is far superior. The live drum sounds are fantastic. You can hear every little detail throughout the kit. The bass player is very tasteful and much more "aggressive" than the Yamaha bass man. It sounds like a live combo and you wouldn't suspect you are listening to a keyboard.
I don't regret selling it to you because it was so very difficult for me to operate in real time, with the buttons on the right side (which is where you prefer them).
The PSR2000 is perfectly adequate and very well suited for what I'm doing right now. I will take a close look at the new GEM, the Technics KN7000 (it will have to greatly improve the vocal input and harmony and accept a standard HD) and the SD1 before getting "this year's" keyboard.
Despite Yamaha's generous gift to Ryan, I remain almost totally disenchanted with them for the way they are handling the PSR2000 situation. It has been two months since I first notified them of my problems, and I fully expect it to be another couple of months before they address any of the updates in the U.S. Then, I expect them to totally disregard the bugs in the harmonizer.
I hope they prove me wrong.
DonM