Thanks for replying to my posting and sharing with me your opinion on Kurzweil products.

This afternoon I went to a local music store and tested Yamaha P80, S80, and Kurzweil SP76 (the 76-key version, only difference between the SP76 and SP88 models is number of keys). I only spend about 2 hours on these 3 keyboards and so my first impression may not reflect the keyboard's capabilities correctly.

Kurzweil SP76 has semi-weighted keys and it is light. Overal its sound is a bit tiny and the piano samples seemed very short. I am sure that its bigger K series brothers are much better in sound quality. Yamaha P80's weighted action keys are very impressive. Among the built-in sounds, I like the classical piano patch the best. It really has one of the best mid-low range piano sounds whereas the treble is clear but very short. Yamaha S80 has slightly less impressive piano sounds but a lot more other sounds to offer, with good key feels. I particularly like its piano+strings patch. I think I like S80 better than the P80 for its MIDI controller features and expandability. I wish the S80 also has an internal sequencer for recording, and has floppy drive - Smart Media is nice but less convenient than floppies.

I think I like Kurzweil's old PC88MX better than the new SP series but they belong to two different machine catagories and so it is unfair to compare them this way. After searching for light weight stage piano, I realize that I am also looking for features that this class of machines does not offer. So, I will still be looking for some more.