I am a PSR S900 owner who 'stepped up' to the Tyros 3 after about 8 months with the PSR.

Overall, the Tyros is an amazing product, and like many have said, it has it's pluses and minuses, like any other instrument.

What appeals to me about the Tyros is the level of realism on many of the SA2 sounds (I refer to the 2 Saxes and the Clarinet).

I don't know that any Grand Piano off a synth is going to be 'all that and a bag of chips' to the truly discerning ear, but in the 'real world', I think the Tyros 3 is 'decent' and 'acceptable'. The cocktail piano sound is nice too.

To me, the Tyros 3 offers a way for a musician of almost any level to put out some great sounding music. It might not be "studio quality" it might not win any Grammys, but if you are a solo player, the Tyros 3 will fulfill that "full band" sound out of just one instrument/arranger OTB, and that's saying quite a lot.

Some of the low-end boards are so tinky sounding they're embarrasing. The S900 and the big brother T3 output a level of realism (especially if you're running the right compression setting and using decent speakers or keyboard amp(s)) that I find most folks feel is quite acceptable.

No keyboard that sells for the 3 to 4k range is going to be all things to all people. Many of the synth/arrangers on the market are so complicated, the average owner can't properly configure it or get any songs to sound decent.

I find the Song Finder, while somewhat slow and cumbersome to use, has some very nice "cover" backings for many of the popular songs of various eras.

A friend has an Oasys 76 board, and for the 8000 dollar cost, ok, it's more of a 'showpiece'. The Motif is simply in plain language too much of a beast for us older players to lug around to gigs or offsite locations.

I think half of being a happy Tyros 3 owner is discovering how to get the most sound out of the board, and being able to 'articulate' those sounds with note falls. The harp is itself a joy, and I have to say Star Wars midi on the S900, well, it's pretty danged impressive for just ONE instrument to voice a symphony!

The T3's string section and french horns are warm and realistic (to me). The drum sounds sound more punchy and authentic than the S900 (to me).

If your goal is just one board that will do a great job overall with many different types of music, I think the Tyros 3 is a sensible choice.

Also, the available RAM slots mean you will be able to buy new custom-voices directly from Yamaha as they are invented/released.

This shows a degree of flexibility which may enhance the longetivity of the ownership experience. If I think that they'll be coming with new piano sounds, new organ sounds, or new whatever sounds down the road, that has appeal to me. Something new around the corner.

I personally think most of the backing tracks are well done and sound good "in real life". If you watch some of the performance videos on YouTube featuring the Tyros 3, I think your ears will tell you this is a quality board for its price point.

Yes, there are some boards that sound better on some "certain" instrument types. But for overall value and ease of use, the Tyros was simply a "must buy" instrument.

The rear power button is a non issue, and is offset (IMHO) by the FRONT USB port which is great for carrying those extra tracks around on.

Yamaha support has been very user friendly, on both boards. I made friends with one of the techs who has built his own "custom" voices for the S900 (he hasn't done anything for the T3 yet), and some of those are very nice.

The slider bars on the Tyros are a huge improvement for 'on the fly' sound balancing during a performance, the S900 requires you to use those tiny up/down arrows, which in plain language are awkward to manipulate in real time while playing a song.

Overall, the Tyros is a great board from many perspectives. Of course beauty is in the ear of the beholder. The aftertouch keyboard on the T3 is nicer and more expressive than the S9's board which lacks that feature.

The octave shift buttons on the left side are OK to me, and being able to hit them together to return to 'default' is a nice touch.


robert