I just got an update from Music123 by email stating that the Fantom X is now supposed to be in stock by 04-03-2004. So the timeline has been pushed back a couple weeks from the original 03-20-2004.

The Rack Mount version's cost is: $1,345.95
It is available at zZounds.com and is expected to be in by 03-30-04. That is 11 days from now so we'll see. It's arrival may be shoved back to a later date also as ALL these 'in stock' dates are tenative that Roland has given these different online retailers. Roland may be giving these earlier dates to tantalize buyers into anticipating this supposed Monster Keyboard's release. It's working but if it's delayed too long people will lose interest IMO and Roland will have to work that much harder to try and regain people's interest and confidence knowing that potential customers get frustrated with Companies that promise something and then don't make good on it. A good example is Korg's PA80. People waited what seemed like forever for the PA80 to hit the streets from the time Korg announced its release. Yamaha has similar problems delivering products on time on the dates promised. The Mo ES was an exception. I think Mike Martin had a lot to do with that which shows Yamaha is trying to turn that bad statistic around. Of course Mike Martin is just the overseer of Workstations I believe. I haven't the foggiest of who's in charge of Marketing for Yamaha's Arrangers.

The PSR 3000 will be the next test for Yamaha to deliver when promised. We can only hope and pray, right?

Best regards,
Mike