I'm kind of hoping that if it does well, they'll revisit the upper end of the market. The BK-9's street price isn't much more than most MOTL arrangers, and almost a cool $2000 less than the PA3X76, the next closest 76! I think there's room for another 76 at the top end.

Roland made a very necessary contraction for a while, I think. Their previous TOTL arrangers hadn't exactly overwhelmed the market, and that's a lot of dough to put into R&D for something to tank. So they cut back to sub-$1000 arrangers for a while, and concentrated on getting some seriously significant new sounds and OS features ready to go before revisiting the MOTL market. The CS, the audio synced loops, the SN stuff (heard my SN Ac Guit demo?), the new Hammond stuff, the vastly improved drums and percussion (I haven't even really started to post about that stuff, yet!), all of this is the step forward they needed to do. Plus not, as many Drum Tracks in a style as you want, and Custom User Kits, vastly improved Pianostyle chord recognition, things like that have put them back on track.

Now all the need to do is wrap it in a great case and action, and give us back the touchscreen (and OK, throw in a decent VH for the Andrews Sisters addicts!) and I think they can reclaim the TOTL sector with their heads held high...

I agree... I think they'd do well with it. Plenty of people still able to drop $5000 on an Audya or T4! The old $3500 price point would make it VERY attractive! Even $4000 would only put it the PA3X76 ballpark.

Excellent .......enjoyed the listen right before I leave for todays gig....good inspiration....thanx for sharing Bill