I almost got rid of mine within the first two weeks. That was a year and a half ago and here the board sits. lol. The learning curve was steep coming from the Yamaha OS, but I stuck with it and still haven't seen or tried anything I like better to date. If I may comment on your points...

Point 1. Transpose stays put until I change it no matter what ( maybe yours has a "bug" luk ? )

Point 2 . Agreed, but since it's only at power up, no big deal to me

Point 3. Ok, but it isn;t any easier on the 2000 ( or any other board I had before ) unless you're only using the first 8 registrations .

Point 4. I think in a lot of areas it's a lot more intuitive than the 2000 once you learn the OS and memorize the screens. Remember it also has a lot more functionality, so it is going to be a steeper learning curve. Too many submenus ( and subsequently buttons to push ) to get to a lot of the functions on the 2000 as I remember it.

Point 5. Agreed. 2 fill ins that don;t always match are the worst part about the board. The good news for me is that the styl variations are excellent and many have "mini fills" at measure 4 or measure 8, so I don;t use the offending ones either. The better news. I can replace ANY style in the board. Mine has about 60 pct of the original styles and 40 % converted and user styles. Several of my "replaced" styles are combinations of the PA80 styles and Yamaha / other styles ( particularly the Yamaha / other drums - better fills and less frills ). Style morphing capabilty made this easy to do.

Sounds: I think in almost every area they are as good and some better than the 2000 ( subjective for sure ). A few are even better than their counterparts on the Motif.

I always thought of the PA80 as the best arranger for the composer, ( closer to a workstation by far than any other offering out there ) and maybe not as good for the live player, but Uncle Dave seems to do well with his in live play, and so have I.

Like UD, when someone comes out with something substantially better ( for me ), then maybe I'm a potential customer. There are some things that can be exasperating about this board, but so far none of the offerings I've tried are better for me. The 384 ppq style resolution isn't always quite good enough for me for composing ( fine for live work ). The 2000 has better resolution, but the styles don't reflect it ( they are apparently done at lower resolution than the board's sequencer is capable of and I don't care for them on the whole ) . I've now tried about every brand and current or recent model except for the Ketron stuff ( I'm intrigued by the SD1 and XD9 .. very intrigued ), and I'm waiting to see the Tyros, but none of the ones I have tried to date have some of the functions or sounds ( and edit capability ) that I would miss if I parted with my PA80. The PA80 isn;t the easiest to play out of the box ( maybe the hardest even ). What I like is that I can customize so much of the board to suit me. Nothing else I've tried gives me that kind of flexibility. That's a HUGE plus for me, but it can take a good bit of work to do it. I often see folks saying that they prefer to just play rather than tweek. I prefer to do both. I love to play. I also love to tweek and customize as I see fit. When someone gives me a board that allows me to do both better than I can now, I'm there.

AJ



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 10-19-2002).]