How much is this unit ? how does it compair to Bk 9

BK-9 dropped out!
I just checked the Thomann website. No more BK-9 listed. When I google for BK-9 Thomann, I find a page saying "This product is no more in our product range" (in German).

Regarding the comparison: E-A7
-is cheaper (around 1,100 vs 1,700€)
-has more world/ethnic sounds
-has NO SuperNatural sounds
-has a 128MB RAM for samples (but probably not conveniently usable for sound packages/libraries).

BK-9 gone already? Must've bombed big time.

Someone in the Roland Arranger forum had already announced that the BK-9 would be phased out soon. A consequence of Roland Europe's demise.
It was such a bad seller, Thomann had no more than 7 reviews in the end, even though the price was first reduced from 1,999 to 1,699 and then to 1,470 Euros.

Does it have a looper/ chord sequencer.

Obviously not. And no ordinary sequencer either, just WAV audio recording.
http://www.roland.com/products/e-a7/specifications/

Waveform List is available!
http://cdn.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/E-A7_Waveform_List_e01_W.pdf

First impression: Lots and lots of ethnic sounds. But restrained quality with grand pianos: There's only one piano with 3 velocity layers (waveforms 1-18, "Pno SX" in mp, f and ff, each in 3 variants), two others with 2 layers.
But the fact that Roland publishes a waveform list, not only a sound list, reveals that the E-A7 obviously has synthesizer functionality, for pure arrangers waveforms are not shown.

Look at this:
902 OrSax Kyof01
903 OrSax Kyof02
904 OrSax Kyof03
905 OrSax Kyof04
906 OrSax Kyof05
907 OrSax Kyof06
908 OrSax Kyof07
909 OrSax Kyof08
910 OrSax Kyof09
911 OrSax Kyof10
912 OrSax Kyof11
913 OrSax Kyof12
914 OrSax Kyof13
915 OrSax Kyof14
916 OrSax Kyof15
917 OrSax Kyof16
918 OrSax Kyof17
919 OrSax Kyof18
920 OrSax Kyof19
921 OrSax Kyof20
922 OrSax Kyof21
923 OrSax Kyof22
924 OrSax Kyof23
925 OrSax Kyof24
926 OrSax Kyof25
927 OrSax Kyof26
928 OrSax Kyof27
929 OrSax Kyof28
930 OrSax Kyof29
931 OrSax Kyof30
932 OrSax Kyof31
933 OrSax Kyof32
934 OrSax Kyof33
935 OrSax Kyof34
936 OrSax Kyof35
937 OrSax Kyof36
938 OrSax Kyof37
939 OrSax Kyof38
940 OrSax Kyof39
941 OrSax Kyof40
942 OrSax KyofA1
943 OrSax KyofA2

So much for oriental saxophones in this E-A7...

There are 4,700 waveforms in total!

Paul (montunoman) it has Multipads, which I think is a first for Roland arrangers. Personally I would like to try this board, maybe they will get one at the Sam Ash off of US-75 in Dallas.

Hi Ted, I've seen some Roland arrangers at Lancaster Music and Murphy's Music in Irving.