Don,

Living in a major metro area, I should be in a better predicament than you are, but alas, the one dealer that was carrying Ketron and Korg arrangers has closed, and to visit the GEM dealer (whose main claim to fame is sky-high prices), I have to take 3 hours of my day, which I have not been able to do so far.

Yamaha is indeed the leader in market penetration in large part because of their extensive dealer network (but also because their professional products are not too expensive).

I did have a chance to try the Korg, and found it quite underwhelming. The SD1 sounds great, but has the usual Ketron quirks, plus if you follow the Ketron Forum discussion, they seem to have trouble supporting their customers. GEM I have not heard, but the speakered one is too heavy, and the "PRO" only has 61 keys - unacceptable for the pro keyboard. All of them have low polyphony which concerns me. The new Roland gets a lot of things right, but still appears to be touch-screen based.

I think that Yamaha has a real opportunity here for Tyros II. As far as a longer keybed goes, I know that not everyone uses it, or says they have need for it. Nonetheless, I bet no one here would complain about having the 76 keys, if that did not make the instrument bigger and heavier.

Regards