Ian,

It's not my job to convince you or anyone else what can or can't be done with my arranger. I merely pointed out factual information based upon what it can and will do. If you and others choose not to seek out other options than the big three, that is your prerogative. I chose to take a chance, buy something sight unseen, and have never regretted that decision.

When I bought my arranger it was a bargain, costing barely more than a T5 sells for street price. In the past 10+ years I've had numerous free software updates that kept making my instrument better and better keeping it cutting edge. Only once did the upgrade cost me money due to hardware updates and that cost was less than $1k. I can't imagine how much a Tyros user would have spent if they've upgraded from the first Tyros to the Tyros 5. Certainly far more than I've spent in over 10 years on my arranger. The sad part is even the Tyros 5 can't do what my 10+ year old instrument can do. That goes to show you what happens when a company like Yamaha cares more about selling products in incremental steps rather than to push the forefront of technology. Yamaha has the technology, financial backing, and expertise to make something so revolutionary it could change the market. The reason they don't is because once they do, then they'd have to top it. Mediocrity has become the standard for the big three with the exception of Korg. Only Korg with the Oasys and Kronos was willing to push limits. Unfortunately they set their limits too low.

Yamaha, Roland, and Korg were all once visionaries... The CS80, GX-1, Jupiter 8, M1, and Triton series to name but a few instruments that changed keyboard history. The DX7 was the start of Yamaha's decent into mediocrity selling to the masses rather than pressing forward in keyboard advancements. Hopefully they'll see fit to push boundaries again in the near future.

I wish companies like Sequential, Moog, Emu Systems, Oberheim, and Arp still existed because they always pushed the envelope no matter what the cost. To move forward requires taking chances and believing in something that others don't necessarily agree with. That logic changed the world and still can.