George, I too visited the Technics booth at the NAMM show (Jan 2001) but came away with an entirely different impression than you. The Technics showroom people (Rocco Ferrante, Chris Halon, etc) were all friendly and took a keen interest in showing me their product line. In contrast to you, I was 'very impressed' with the KN6500's sounds and styles. I feel that Technics styles and sounds really showcase traditional combo jazz, big band, and latin genres; while Solton, Roland, Korg shine in the contemporary pop & rock department. It's really more like comparing apples to oranges. Owning both the Technics KN5000 (predessor to the KN6500/6000) and now the Yamaha PSR2000 too, I can say that they have different strengths. For traditional lounge jazz combo gigs, I prefer the KN5000, but for a more contemporary sound geared to a wider genre of music, the Yamaha wins. I think Technics styles have much better jazz style walking bass lines, but Yamaha utilizes drum 'fill ins' better (fill in better integrated: smoother transitions to variation). I have found that integrating Technics great bass lines with Yamaha's drum patterns/fills produces just the PSR style sound I like. Out of the box, I still prefer the Technics acoustic (steinway) piano for playing (comping & soloing) in arranger KB mode, but after tweaking and layering, an acceptable piano is achieved on the Yamaha PSR2000 as well.

I agree with George that Technics (here in the US) has highly inflated dealer price markups. It's important to point out that even if George Kaye decided he wanted to carry the Technics KN arranger keyboard line, that Technics would not allow him to carry it, because Technics dealer policy (in the US) only permits traditional acoustic piano/organ stores (Colton Piano/Organs, etc). to sell their KN keyboard line.

Though I still think that the Technics KN6500 may be the best sounding top of the line Keyboard arranger for the style of music I love, until Technics USA ammends its' highly restrictive sales policy, its' price will remain overly inflated compared to comparable arranger keyboards out there.

- Scott