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Good Morning All,

I really appreciate the views and facts in the replies, but I did ask for opinions as well on what I think is of interest to us all as to the future of arranger keyboards, due to the assumption that the technology in these instruments has probably almost reached its peak, and only small tweaks plus adding existing technology used in other makes already, such as a DVD Recorder/Player - etc could be added. Can you think of any major feature not already on any keyboard that could be added to current models ?

Would such minor additions justify musicians upgrading any more, as manufacturers need buyers, or go out of business.
I still believe that the KN7000 in 2003 was at the absolute leading edge of the market at that time, and it would have been difficult then, to make a big enough improvement to justify the production of a new model.

The crux of the matter is that over the last 12 months, the used price of 'older, rarer and more desireable' keyboards on Ebay has risen by about 50% (The KN7000 and 2600, and the Yamaha 9000 Pro), e.g. The 7000 was about 600 GBP (950 USD) a year ago, and they are now selling for over 900 GBP (1400 USD).
The 2600 was being sold in 2004 new for 600 GBP (reduced from RRP of 1400 GBP) .... and 6 years later is selling at up to 400 GBP !!...2/3 of its original price. I am sure that this is an indication of the high esteem that musicians have for these machines.

As to the purchase of the 2600, - it was pointless for both my wife and I to have a 7000 each, she is now the performer, and I am the 'tweaker and sequencer', as my RSI (Carpel Tunnel Syndrome), no longer allows me to play well. We can 'swip and swap' between the two machines, when we both feel the urge at the same time. Most of the time, we will have the choice of which one to use. And as stated above the 2600 will make a better 'gigging' keyboard.

Another big deciding factor was that in all honesty, I couldn't afford another major purchase so soon after the KN7000.

Compatibility is interesting !! I am buying the 2600 off a friend, and have had a 'mess', before I save up the 'necessary'.

I took over three SD cards from the 7000 ....

a) One with songs from Bills 'Willums Pages', that were recorded on his 7000, and they played fine, I noticed no instrument substitution.

b) The second card was a Patterns commercial SD card for the 7000. That too worked well. So having the two keyboards may well not be so bothersome, we will have to see !! I note that many cards Neil Blake has in his catalogue are for both 7000 and 2600.

c) The last card we tried was an SD card that I had loaded some KN6000 styles off a floppy, one at a time on to the SD Card in the 7000, then saved them to SD. They worked OK too.

Thanks for reading my 'Ramblings' - I hope they are of interest.

John

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