Guys, We're really talking apples and oranges. The 4X is twice the price of the 970. What Yamaha accomplished with the par series is pretty remarkable. The sounds stack up with a board twice the price. I realize a lot of the features your talking about are performance issues...but we have to keep things in perspective. Yea...I think the 4X is an excellent arranger and definitely gives Yamaha some serious competition with whatever their next high end arranger will be.

Jingleman