I spoke with a man who works in Yamaha as a demonstrator about the keybed of PSR-S950, he didn't say that it's excellent, but he said that it's rather good. I asked him if the keybed of S950 is better than keybeds of entry-level keyboards like PSR-E433 and he told me that it's definitely better.

As for me, when I was working in a restaurant I had to play Yamaha grand piano there for a long time. I sure liked its action, but I can't say that switching to any of my keyboards (PSR-3000, S950, NP-30, MM6) was in any way painful after that. I admit that I'm not a professional pianist, I don't play tricky classical stuff (I don't like it either), but I do want the keyboard to let me play what I want.

If I'm not mistaken, Roland uses keybeds which are made by Italian corporation called "Fatar". I had Fatar's midi keyboard for a while. Can't say that I felt about it any different then about Yamaha's products.

As I said earlier, none of these contests has ever changed anyone's opinion.

I can see this is just frittering away my valuable playing time (I've gotta enjoy my awesome Tyros4)and I'd rather be involved in more useful discussions.

Rather than compare, I prefer to identify with other arranger players as that always ends in a win-win.

Seeing this thread has drifted off topic a bit too much, and, since I'm chuffed with my previous responses, my participation on this subject ends here.

Ian

I think many are related "Good" to what is good for piano players. And that's fine, if that's what you want.
I never played piano. The lighter and faster the key response the better for me. My aging arthritic, cramping fingers have been through so much basketball, golf, fishing, some even actual work, that I physically couldn't play a piano for more than a few minutes, even if I knew how. So for me PSR keys are really good.
$30,000 grand piano keys are really bad. It's all in your perspective!

DonM

I've probably played synths and organs more professionally than pianos in my career. I think that everybody is clouding the issue. This is nothing to do with how an arranger's action compares to a piano's...

It is how it compares to OTHER synth actions. There is a wide degree of difference between them, ranging from the excremental to the sublime. But it isn't a weight issue. It is a quality of construction issue. Without doubt, you are hard pressed to find ANYTHING in the S950's price range that has such a poorly constructed action. Gary makes a point to never invoke any other synth actions to make a comparison for his poor arthritic fingers (he probably hasn't played that G800 in decades... memory is such a poor thing!), and wants to make his point by comparison to a piano's action to cloud the issue.

But take that comparison away (there is only one arranger made with a full piano action, the Korg PA588, which hasn't been updated in years) and start to compare PSR's with their actual competition, and weight becomes moot. They are ALL lightweight actions. Just some suck, and most don't.

With such misguided loyalty as is being shown, I guess it's unlikely that Yamaha will ever seriously upgrade the quality of actions in the PSR upper end, so there's no danger of Gary ever having to eat his words, but I am utterly convinced that if Yamaha ever DID, and put the T4 action into a PSR, Gary would be the last person complaining about it! It isn't any heavier, it isn't any harder to play, it will put no more stress on his fingers than the current action. It will just FEEL good...

Same rebuttal to Kabinopus. You don't compare a PSR S950 against an even cheaper PSR (as bad as it is, it can always, in Yamaha's hands, get worse!), or against a piano.

You compare it to it's price point competition. That is the PA900 and the BK-9. Heck you can even compare it against Korg or Roland arrangers at half the price. They ALL have FAR superior synth actions.

But this says a lot about what Yamaha feel mid-price arranger buyers are willing to tolerate. Yes, they put really good speakers in them, even quite a nice display (even if it isn't touch screen) but they put the worst actions in them possible, and somehow, despite it NOT being good enough for everybody else, Yamaha users meekly accept it.

What's up with that?!