Donny: Though I personally prefer having built in speakers as well, I think that in Yamaha's eyes (and many pro synth players as well), that only non Speaker keyboards are considered 'PRO' boards, while keyboards with speakers geared for the home user. I believe Yamaha actually came out with the 9000PRO in an attempt to attract the Pro keyboard market to an arranger style keyboard. In a sense it's worked, because the 9000pro appears to be one of the first arrangers to be reviewed by Keyboard Magazine and receive praises by mainstream pro musicians as well.

- Scott