The PA800 didn't sound good to me. That doesn't mean it's not a good keyboard as the big 3 sell thousands of them around the world. It means, as I heard it, it didn't sound good. Then again, the Ketron didn’t sound good either, but it sounded excellent when Frankie played it and I listened from 10 feet away.

The demo's sounded good, but Donnie warned me about that.

So what's wrong here? What do you folks think? I DO know that all keyboards sound better when you're listening to them as compared to playing them. No different from a pianist. You never hear it as a listener does.

Are my being too critical? But of what use is all these bells and whistles if the basic sound (drums and bass) doesn’t drive me to play better?

I have a 4 piece EV system 300 here that I’m going to have to bring down to the store and try the 800 on it. Maybe that’s all I need….what I’m used to hearing.

The salesman made an interesting statement when I expressed my displeasure with the drums. He said they sounded fine to him. Reason being that the new generation (him being one of them) was raised on the digital, hip-hop, rap sound...thin drums....and my generation remembers thick analog drums. Consequently, we are subconsciously comparing them.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m more of a player/entertainer than I am a techie. You folks seem to know these keyboards inside out. Any comments on WHY I’m not hearing these things properly in close quarters in the store? I don’t remember having this much trouble buying a keyboard when I was doing it regularly up to about 10 years ago. Did keyboard sound technology change that much or is it simply unreal expectations on my part?

BTW…..just as I started thinking it was my hearing, I noticed a Korg M3 sitting there. I played that. The sound on it was incredible…lush strings, authentic horns, bells, guitars, etc. I understand that it’s a replacement for the Oaysis (which I was also fond of). So….it’s NOT my hearing. I mean that M3 really brought me back to life. To the point I have to consider, if I buy a new arranger, using the M3 as a 2nd keyboard for lead sounds. I played the first movement to Beethoven’s Fifth and Strauss’s Blue Danube on it using the “string orchestra.” I looked up and there was a small crowd around me…I think more to do with the M3 sound than me! That keyboard would be a killer on stage hooked up to a big P.A. system!