Well, everyone thinks their keyboard is best for live use, and so do I! In fact, my Yamaha 9000 Pro is so invaluable for stage use that I own two of them, one of which stays pretty much on stage or in the car and the other in my practice studio. I've owned many instruments including Kurzweils, Korgs and Rolands but the Yamaha 9000 Pro is the most useful and versatile keyboard of them all. It has many of the arranger features of the Tyros such as the Music Finder database, vocal harmonizer, internal hard drive, great sounds etc. but then it's unique features are:

* 76-keys and one of the best-feeling keybeds of any arranger - an absolute must for me as a pianist. This single feature alone eliminates much of the competition for my use, and what competition that remains is overpriced and has less features.

* Expandable polyphony - accepts PLG-series voice cards including the new PLG150-AP triple strike acoustic piano. My current configuration has 208 notes of polyphony. No other arranger can claim this honor.

* LittlLite Plugs - better than light-up buttons IMHO because the entire surface of the keyboard and the music stand is fully illuminated. It even helps illuminate the performer.

* Low-impedence mic input... which should be required on all arrangers but isn't.

* Sampling - I use this only occasionally but better to have than not.

The 9000 Pro is the most practical keyboard I've ever owned because it can cover any gig situation I can throw at it. Since it's an arranger it can even allow me to improvise on stage - even my Motif ES 8 can't do that as effectively. And it looks great... I still get a lot of admirers who've never seen anything like it. I couldn't stand a smaller or less capable keyboard so until someone makes something much better then this'll be my primary stage instrument.

Oh, one other thing - since it's no longer made the prices of used 9000 Pro's have dropped to around the price of a PSR3000.

[This message has been edited by The Pro (edited 10-27-2004).]