I definitely agree they're synths have much better features / sounds / beats for Dance and Hip hop, but in arranger land I reckon Yamaha have a better sound for it compared to the PA series and the Roland E and G series. the lead voices are more useful. then again it does depend what exact type of music you want to play.

I choose to play a lot of popular dance / trance songs from the last 5 years such as DJ Sammy, Sash, ATB, Ian Van Dahl, Faithless etc and I just feel that Yamaha sounds more to the real thing... A lot of people also comment on how accurate the sounds are suited to these songs as well...

I think Korg and Roland veer towards straight Techno and Electronica. (I am only talking about arrangers here not synths)

As for synths I think they are all equal in sound quality for modern music but i would buy a yamaha Motif cos thats really my preference since i have been a long time yamaha user.

whereas someone who always uses roland might prefer the Fantom series as it makes them more comfortable...

Nick