Hi,

I've now spent enough time with the Tyros that I think I can now make an educated decision as to whether or not I want to add it to the arsenal. I tried to compare it to what I like and don't about my PA80. I also did the A vs B sound comparison with the PSR2100 coming through the same sound system.

In the past I had done a similar comparison with the 9000 against the 740, and I pretty much couldn't tell the difference. This time, it's different. The 2100 is a wonderful sounding board and packed with features for the price, but I must say I could definitely detect a difference between the two for similar styles and patches. Not all of them, but some to be sure. Suffice it to say, I like the 2100 and the Tyros sounds. I've already ranted in the past about the 2000 series key feel, so all I'll say is that the 2100 won;t work for me. The Tyros has a similar feel to my Motif ES. Not as responsive as I'd like, but I can work with it.

This is the subjective part but.. The sounds are brilliant. What else can I say ? I would say that I would prefer a majority of the patches in the Tyros over their counterparts in the PA80. Particularly the pianos, saxes / winds, ep's, brass, and acoustic guitars. The electric Guitars and bass sounds have inmproved a lot over earlier yamaha arrangers, but I like the PA80's just as much. The drums are ok, but I like the PA80 better here. The organs are good, but again I like the PA80. Both have good synth sounds, the PA80 has better editing from within.

Yamaha's styles seem to have become more life like to me, but still aren't necessarily as in your face or as natural sounding as the PA80's are. The tradeoff here is that the Tyros has much better fills in some styles, there are more of them ( 4 vs 2 ), and the styles are still a little more generic, and less busy than those on the PA80, which I sometimes prefer for live work anyway.

The OS and interface is easy... easy... easy.. I can work this whole board and probably use almost any function without having to look at the manual. I wish the Tyros folks would give a few lessons to the Motif ES folks on this one.

The conclusion. I'm torn a little here. I really want this board, but funds dictate otherwise.. for now anyway. I can see that overall I'd probably like it as much as I do my PA80, maybe more, but I really don't want to let the PA80 go either, because it has been such a good board for me. Right now, ( but not in the future I hope ) I'd have to let it go if I wanted a Tyros. So. I'll wait and hopefully by the time the PA1x speaker version comes out, cash flow will improve here and then I can start the whole process again. My prevailing thought though is that unless the PA1x is realy that much better than the PA80, I'd prefer to keep the PA80 and add a Tyros to the lineup.

AJ