I still have my PA80 an probably will for life ( it's life or mine ). I still like it's sounds and it's styles vs the other arrangers I've had or played. Tons of sound editing power vs most of the other offerings I've seen, which is a big plus for me. Great midfile playback machine as well. It's major weakness has already been mentioned, the fills on some styles are a terrible match to the main variations. Over time, I've managed to correct some of this on the styles I like to use, while adding and tweaking about 100 other brand styles ( mainly Yamaha and Roland styles ). The good news is that the factory styles can be modified and / or changed.

PSR2000: Liked the sounds and the OS quite a bit. Hated the key feel and didn't care for the blandness of some of the styles. Weaker in onboard sound editing than the PA80, but packed with enough good sounds to work with. I had a very bad experience with my first 2000. It's OS was as buggy as could be, and it resided longer in the repair shop than it did with me. My second one was flawless.

Casio MZ2000: Excellent sound editing capabilities. The sounds for my tastes ranged from excellent ( sax, organs, a few electric guitars, synths pads and leads ) to rather poor ( acoustic and electric pianos, acoustic guitras, woodwinds, bass sounds ). The styles sounded very thin compared to every other arranger I've tried. The sliders were cool and very useful. It's approach to midi ( it's own propietary format ) was poor, but the style creator was kinda cool.

PSR740: Key feel was again an issue. This board felt very cheap, not just the keys. The pitch wheel felt like a toy. The vocal harmonizer was poor. Still, it had some very good sounds and the styles were useable. I thought this was going to be a huge step up from the 530, and with 4 variations per style it was, yet in some aras, it really wasn't that much better.

PSR530: Bang for the buck. It'll always have a special place in my musical heart, but compared to today's arranger gear it's rather light on features and styles. Still, for the rather small amount of sample rom it had, it sounded pretty good. It was my first real new purchase ( PSR85 doesn't count ) since I purchased the Korg M1 ( now that was a real love / hate relationship) , and I liked many of the sounds on the 530 better than the M1. I'm kinda sorry I sold it. It was a cool board to take out into the backyard and just jam on.

A Technics late 80's model ( maybe a 920 ? I can't remember the model # ). Very crude by today's standards and even vs the 530. No pitch wheel. Still, for it's time some of the sounds weren't all that bad. The styles don't compare to today's stuff, but in it's day it ws kind of cool. Very light in the bells and whistles dept. I traded it for a small soundsystem. The guy I traded it to still has it.

PSR85- ( early 90's ? ) Supposed to be a stepup from the PSS and Casio toys of the 80's. Not even as good as the KN whatever it was... Poor styles, poor sounds, but my daughter liked it and she still has it.

PSS480. A K-Mart toy from the late 80s. I still have it, and my granddaughters enjoy it immensely. Terrible PWM sounds, very bad styles, mini keys, yet I kept it as a nostalgic piece ( kinda like the Casio sk-1 is to a lot of people, though my sk is long gone ). It had some crude synth editing capabilities, and well... that was all I needed to hook me.

I also had a few Casio toys in the 80s. I don't remember much about any of them.

I guess if I was ever considering a new arranger ( I'm not .. but who knows what the future holds ), based on what I've seen out there to this point, I'd probably pick the Tyros. Love the sounds and OS / layout. Key feel is fair ( at least a bit better than the PSR line )

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 01-04-2005).]