I had the pleasure of playing both the Roland EM-15 and EM-25 today. I have to say I was quite impressed with these boards. They both are classic examples of "don't judge a book by its cover". I remember reading somewhere (I believe it was a posting done by George Kaye) where he said both keyboards have 1mb dedicated to the sounds. Well roland did a pretty good job with just 1mb! I was surprised to hear such good sounds come out of them... Granted they aren't top quality sounds, but pretty good for only 1mb. I also liked the action on them. It wasn't too bad. The styles were alright, but nothing to really get excited over. They both are great beginner keyboards. However I'm a little turned away by the prices of them... I thought the price was a bit too high for both models... Of course this local store had the EM-15 overpriced. He was asking well over $400.00 for it..., and he was selling the EM-25 for a great deal more than that. I'm really interested in hearing the newest model the
EM-55, but it's not out in the US yet. They added a lot of features to the EM-55 like a pitchbend/modulation stick, 16 track sequencer, more sounds with more MB's dedicated to them, a crap load of drum sets, and more... It's going to be an interesting little keyboard....

Squeak

yes, I have played both kb also. And I think as you.
But Em-55 is two times the EM-25 price (950 dollars), and I think it can't (as Em-25 and EM-15) edit its styles; it is not possible to modify voices or volumes assigned to parts of style... So.. it is another kind of kb, if you compare it to PSR-1000 (same price)

I do not like the EM series at all . I will try to see the EM55 at NAMM .
The Em15 is going to have to be priced at $189.99 for it to compete with Yamaha IMO .
The Em25 will need to be $339.99 !
Best bang for the buck is the Yamaha EZ30 !
This $280.00 keyboard is great ! I bought one for my kids to get involved with music . IT has the same sounds as the PSR550 . The light guide system is helping my son + daughter ( 7 + 9 yrs old) memorize songs ! It's also light enough or me to carry around . Check it out ! Dano

Squeak,
When I recieved the EM25's from Roland I thought it was impossible to have only 1MB of sound rom due to the fact that all the lower end keyboards have gone to between 3 and 4MB of sounds years ago. However, I find the keyboard a bit overpriced since the newer PSR's and especially the Casio CTK-671 have come out. Even the Casio WK-1630 and WK-1800 are better values in my opinion. As Dan O says, the Rolands need to be priced more aggressively if they want to share some of the market. Two weeks ago I would have thought the Yamaha PSR225GM or the EZ30(after you turn the voice off that drives me and my sales staff crazy) would have been my first choices, but now I really like the Casio the best, and the dumb thing is that I don't like the company much but they sure did come out with a great inexpensive product. Remember, any of you that walk in a store to audition the Casio to make sure you select the "Advanced Tone" button and listen to these 99 sounds. The "Normal" sounds are nice, but nothing like the "Advanced Tones".
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

Geroge and Dan0,

I agree with you both in that I feel the EM's are way overpriced. For the quality of the unit they should be placed in the same price range of the lower PSR's. Hell in musicians friend they are asking $299.99 for the EM-15 and $399.99 for the EM-25.... That's a little high in my opinion considering they don't have pitchbend wheels, no style recorders, and so forth. At least the Casio WK series offer both a pitch bend and modulation wheel. I think Yamaha needs to start doing that.. Why they make these great keyboards like the PSR-550 and don't include a modulation wheel is beyond me. From what it looks like the EM-55 has most of the same set up and quite possibly has the same stlyle editing limitations of the lower models. It will be nice to see this one soon... Any word on when it's to be released, or will we not know until after NAMM?

Squeak