Hi Bebop!

What an interesting topic! I'm pleased to see someone else was unhappy with the Yamaha PSR8000. I almost bought one, but saw the Technics KN5000 just in time! My history with Technics goes back to 1985 when I got a holiday job demonstrating their keyboards in a local music shop. I can't remember the model numbers though. All I can remember was thinking even then just how fantastic these machines were. I've owned Yamaha and Roland keyboards, none of which come close to Technics. My first was the KN1000, and I had to save hard to buy the optional disk drive! Then I bought one of the first Ensembles, also with disk drive option. It had 76 keys though, and something called FSC (Fullband Setting Computer) Remember that? I think that was the early equivalent of the sequencer. The Disk drive was a black box which sat on top of the piano. I thought it was so clever! Then came the KN2000, with its revolutionary big blue LCD screen. Magic! The KN3000 was a let-down, so I waited for the KN5000, and was not disappointed! The KN6000 was not released here; instead we got the KN6500, which is my current machine. The upgraded voicing is simply dynamic, as are the new styles, but a number of styles from the KN5000 were omitted. I'm sure you are all aware of the software available in the UK, which brings back the styles from the KN2000/5000. These have solved the problem associated with upgrading and losing previous styles! Hopefully I'll be able to catch up and get the KN7000 soon.