Arthur,
Last year at the NAMM show I visited the Technics booth and sat down and played the KN6500 for over an hour. My impression was much the same as when I played the 5000. I was disappointed with the drum samples as I have always been with technics products and thought the sounds were only fair when it came to brass, saxophones and strings. As to the look of the keyboard it was very good looking but so are many other new keyboards.
As I have often mentioned, my biggest disappointment with technics is within the organization. I don't feel like they do their products justice. Very poor technical support, demanding high prices from their dealer network and an attidtude (which I see at every NAMM show I've attended the past several years) of not really being interested in what they are offering to the music industry. It's as if a staff of Japaneese engineers design this keyboard and then the US team goes and destroys their hard work by not promoting it in a professional way.
This is my take on Technics and why I would not choose to display or sell their keyboards. Even if the next generation keyboards were the best sounding keyboards, I would not consider them in my store unless the company really could convince me they were running their business differently than I now know them as.
By the way, I have always had a similar feeling towards Casio and this past year I decided to give them a chance to show me they've changed. The Rep out here in California happens to be a friend from the industry for many years and I thought "what the heck, I'll give Casio another try". I bought 6 WK1630's and 6 WK1800's because I really think these keyboards have a lot to offer, but, it took almost 2 months to receive my first order and almost 6 months to receive my second. I really have to think long and hard if I want to represent a company like this again.
When I deal with Yamaha, I have the support of a huge company with many friends working to keep me and my customers happy. When I deal with Solton, I have Lou in New York who would do anything to help me out and he has done exactly this time and time again. Korg has a product specialist who I can call on any day and he's either right there or calls me back within the day. Roland, the same thing and Generalmusic, I can call the national sales manager who is also an expert on their products or Chris Anthony who makes the styles and sounds that go into their products and discuss anything i need to within a moments call. This is what I think is missing from Technics and from Casio. They could and should change but I haven't seen any sign of this recently and I don't expect things to change the way they seem to be going.
This was a long answer to your question of how I feel toward the KN6500 and I hope I have expressed myself clearly.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California