It seems that Yamaha and Roland protect their US dealers and Korg,Ketron and perhaps Technics do not. With Technics,who knows, as most of their dealers really do have an obscene markup.Ketron has such a small US distribution that it is hard to tell.
I suspect that with Korg it is the US dealers who are the victims here. It is not your local dealer simply deciding to make a large profit that accounts for the difference between the pa80 and the psr2k here in the states. It is the difference in wholesale cost that US dealers pay more than Synthplanet pays for the same merchandise.I think that if you compare US prices that you will find that SD1,KN6500,etc. will cost close to 3x the psr2k. For that much, I would buy from Synthplanet and to hell with the warranty!
But if your real final cost is within say 25% or so, you may find that warranty and local support from a GOOD dealer is worth paying the difference. By the way,this is not an argument,I'm just trying to give you more of a complete picture. If you do buy from Synthplanet, please let us know how it turns out. I hope you love your new keyboard.
Bill E

No argument here Bill, just stating my personal opinion. I am considering the PA 80 but am also trying to demo the KN6500 and SD1 which I was a little negative toward at first. As soon as I can find a store that has them I will make up my mind. I thank you for your info, a warranty is worth thinking about if it's not valid on products purchased over seas. Do you know of any U.S. stores that charge a reasonable price.


[This message has been edited by synthmeister (edited 01-27-2002).]

I've had my PSR2K for about three months...and I love it! I have other professional boards by Korg, Yamaha, etc. but these PSR keyboards are fantastic for the songwriter/live performer with a home studio! You won't believe this, but for about a year I used two small PSR keyboards in my duo. I used one just for left hand styles and the other for full 32-note polyphony for the right hand. It was a great (and very lightweight and inexpensive) setup. I left my big boards home in the studio! This setup worked great for live performances except for one thing...the noise level. Since I had to use the phones output to the Mackie I had quite alot of hiss from the PSR's...but they still sounded great. So....I bought a 2000 and I can't say enought good things about it. The styles are great, it's quiet, the voices are great. I love the organ flutes! By hitting the variation button the Leslie speeds up or slows down in a very natural way. I know...I used to carry a B3 around with two stacked Leslies..and I had a mic on them. I haven't heard the PA-80. I like Korg stuff, but the 2K is so user friendly. I use it in my duo with a guitar man who plays sax. It's the perfect setup, and for the money I simply can't imagine a better keyboard for ANYBODY!!!

GIRAFFE554
in southern Minnesota

Hello everyone,
I need help. So, please someone try to find time to answer me. I recently bought keyboard Yamaha PSR-2000. This keyboard has vocal harmoniser built in. It works perfectly when I play live and sing. But vocal harmoniser doesn't work properly when I sing along with midi file song from floppy (in my keyboard).
Midi song simply doesn't give harmony information to vocal harmoniser I tried to do everything I knew but I didn't succeed. By the way I'm sort of beginner in this area.
So, please someone tell me what to do (how to set my keyboard).
Thanks !

I had PA-80 for 3 weeks and also had PSR-2000 for about the same time.

Let me tell you, the PA-80 operation is NOT intuitive. I got frustrated with it and decided not to buy it.

In contrast, PSR-2000 is sooo simple to use.

I have had many arrangers in the past but PA-80 is the worst. It just kills the fun after a while. Especially if you have to setup registrations to prepare for live performances.

However, the keyfeel on PSR-2000 is much worse compared to PA-80 although you can get used to it after a while.

I've found that the PA80 is like a dry wine or a fine scotch ..... it's an aquired taste. It's not an "out of the box" keyboard. You really need to understand this unit before you can control it. It's clearly aimed at a more technical approach than alot of other brands.
While I DO like simple, easy to understand operation - there is something to be said for deep, in depth, sofisticated editing and setup options.
The PA80 is not as user friendly as the home stuff, but I've found that after having almost ALL of the arrangers out there .... this one has enough for me to build on, and I learn more about it every day.
I've said before that they are ALL missing something "key" to happiness, and that's true. I'm forcing myself to avoid buying anything else till the compromises are minimalized.
The PA80 is lightweight, sounds great, and after you figure out how to "tame" it .... it performs like a true pro keyboard should. It's not for the weak at heart !

Well,
Here are my 2 cents,
I think the PA80 is the best choice here.
It has the best sounds and styles.
I've played the PSR-2000 and found it rather a disappointment, The styles sound a bit keyboardish and unrealistic, so do the sounds.
But every one has his own taste.
My personal favorite is the Ketron XD9, which has the best sounds and styles IMO.
I've compared it to the other two (PA-80 & PSR-2000), I think the XD9 is the best, the PA80 second, and the PSR-2000 third.
I've also heard the VA7 which sounds pretty impressive too.

Good luck & Greetz ,
Marcel

[This message has been edited by Wazza (edited 01-06-2003).]

From this old guy's perspective, the best thing you can do is sit down with the PA and PSR side by side, play them both, look at the bottom line, then decide which will best suit your needs. Personally, I own two PSR-2000s and two PSR-740s. I traveled down to Washington Music in Rockville, MD where they have a huge selection of keyboards, lots of brands and models, spent the better part of two hours there and ended up leaving with a 2000. If you're playing live, the sounds are excellent, especially the sax, grand piano, trumpet, flute and several guitar sounds. As for styles, there are hundreds of additional styles available at dozens of websites, many of which have been tuned to perfection. They can be quickly accessed from the floppy drive and virtually eliminate dead time between songs. If you the time, patience, skill and ability to tune the PA-80, it's a great sounding machine, but for the amount of money you'll spend, you can buy a pair of 2000s and have a few bucks left over. As for durability, I have just over 200 jobs on the 2000 and five times that many on the 740s, and knock on wood, never had a problem. Consequently, I don't know much about Yamaha's support, however, you can learn a lot from the individuals that frequent this forum. Guess the ball's in your court now!

Cheers,

Gary

If you're doing any Country/Western, the PA80 is really weak in the styles. It doesn't even have a basic Country Shuffle or Shoddish and not much of a CW Waltz. I had to make my own.
I also found that, while the styles in it are basically great, they are so individualized that if you use the same one very often, it becomes quite recognizable.
There are style available to load, but I couldn't seem to make them sound as good as the factory ones.
The PSR2000 styles are not as exciting and I guess more basic, but they are very useable in live situations, particularly if you can play the riffs and fills yourself.
My opinion is Ketron has the best sound and best "live" styles. I loved the X1 except for the fact that the fill and ending buttons were on the wrong side of the keyboard for my use.
I wish I could find an SD1 or Vega or XD9 to try out. The rep is supposed to be bringing one when he comes through, but so far no word.
I loved the PA80 until I did a few live jobs with it. Then it was love/hate. I loved the sounds and some of the features, but I missed the Vocal Harmony, fills, intros endings, breaks and overall user-friendliness of the PSRs.
DonM

Great discussion and a lot of excellent points. Speaking strictly from the point of view of manufacturer preference, I have had Korg, Roland, Technics and Yamaha boards over the last 20 years. In overall performance, ease of use, support and bang for the buck, I have become a dyed-in-the-wool Yamaha player.

I love my PSR 9000 but it is too heavy to take on gigs. The 740 is another favorite of mine, but having to go through the Function Key to get to numeric registrations was a bit time consuming on jobs. Having only 3 User Slots for styles for external styles was also a problem for me.

Those concerns vanished with the introduction of the 2000.

The 2000 has become my major working tool and is, without a doubt, the most practical board for my purposes...quick set up, good VH, intuitive and easy to navigate, quality sounds, lightweight, looks good, an excellent variety of styles and editing capabilities, loads discs super fast and lets me set up the next registration while playing the current one with minimal button pushes.

The only downsides (and minor at that) are the lack of User Memory (but it loads styles from discs very quickly) key feel (which I got used to) and the little extra effort I feel necessary to compensate for lack of professional quality construction.

But, overall, it is my board of choice and I have just ordered my second one for back up and use at home.

Eddie