Mikey,
Well, your Mars boy is wrong about the Yamaha polyphony too. It's 126. What a jerk.
It's possible that he meant by having more polyphony the manufacturer can stack up more tones within a sound to give a better overall tone. Yamaha uses 4 sounds per tone in a lot of the better sounds, as do many other brands. Ironically, the polyphony on the PSR9000 is very weak. I still can't layer a simple piano & string sound without having terrible, UNmusical dropouts. It almost sounds as if it's playing in mono. That sales clerk is a jackass, and if he was any good at doing music for a living - he wouldn't have to work in a store!
You'll be very happy with the PA80,
but if you decide to change - - - -
you know where NOT to shop!