Hi Gary,

I have used the E6 for the last 3 years. I started off with the omni-directional and it worked fine with the Tyros and separate PA system. Countryman say that you need to be at least 6 feet in front of the speaker, any closer and you will get feedback problems.

Since a lot of what I do is running a church service, I do quite a lot of speaking, and frankly standing out front, way in front of the speakers, the omni-directional was great!

However, when I bought the Korg Pa900 and started using the onboard speakers I was getting really bad feedback. Fortunately my wife and I had planned a trip out west to San Francisco, so while I was there I visited the Countryman office near SFO and had them convert it to a hyper cardioid, which they did at a nominal price.

This is working wonderfully, and I can boost the volume of the mic without any feedback problems. I have to be careful when walking out front to take a circuitous route keeping away from the on-board speaker, but with that caveat I am really happy with the Countryman.

Also bear in mind, though, that I prefer the clarity of the Countryman to the perhaps better vocal processing of the Crown (I suspect because of the positioning of the mic you can work the Crown in ways that you cannot work the Countryman) ; also the minimal appearance when I am out and about talking is important to me. That having been said, I am not as familiar with the vocal processing set up on the keyboard as you are, so no doubt you could make it sound better than me.