Well, I have played them both...I own the
xp-30 and played around with both the RS's for a couple of hours..

Good point about the 88key vs 61key...I'm beginning to really see as I get deeper into this that 61 keys really BLOWS....especially now that I'm using the board as more of a midi controller triggering virtual synths..

xp-30 has expansion board capability....whoop de do....for 200 bucks or so I can get a really good East West or ILIO sample library to use in my EXS24 with Logic......

I'm finding that all these frikkin patches on the xp-30 is more of a headache than anything...even with all my patches loaded into a patch librarian in Logic its still a pain in the ass...add one expansion board and you have almost 2000 patches to sift thru while you are writing....Can an artist paint with 2000 colors all laid out in front of him...?? No he starts with a few gets them to blend...

Sorry if I seem negative but I dont like the way Roland seems to be manipulating the customer...I bought my xp-30 thinking I wouldnt be needing another synth in the studio for a while, now I see the rs-9, with 88 keys, better sounding samples all round IMHO, and in a way have admitted that a lot of the bells and whistles on the xp-30 are overkill...all for LESS than what I bought my xp-30 for new is the part that really gets me...

The only thing I didnt do was A-B the xp-30 and the rs-9 since the Guitar Center didnt have them both set up in the same room...If anyone has an opinion on the overall sound quality of both synths I'd appreciate it...