Why do I see so many cheesy Yamahas? They have those horrid built in speakers and horrible sounds. Why has a brand that used to pioneer the field make so much horrible shit nowadays. The only good things that you can find from them is too goddamned expensive for the average musician. Why?

And they also make motorcycles....

Roland and Korg also have their range of keyboards wimth build in speakers etc.

And as for the price...
I just picked up an AN1X for less than $725... The cheapest (new) synth I have ever bought!

Regards,
Adriaan

And I think the new cs2x is also a great instrument for the price it costs. 16 mb of sample rom, 64 voice polyphony, a lot of editing functions etc.
I bought one (traded in my goor 'old' cs1x and I'm very content with it!
Just good stuf from Yamaha for a very reasonable price. And no speakers :-)
Bye - Hans

You haven't done your homework...Not everybody wants to spend big bucks for jr or sis to practice their piano lesson scales on. You must be shopping in the Consumer Electronic Stores with vcvr's and tv's nearby. Check out a decent music store or music catalogs website. Have you seen the DJX, analog style sounds and controls, fat sounds if you plug it into a decent amp and speakers. Lots of bang for under 350 bucks. With a midi sequencer like Cubase VST and and some time, you's be able to make some great music. With HD recording in VST, the DJX could do all of the sounds.

I just bought an EX5 and it's fabulous and yes, I did pay a bit more than I planned. But it's already roadtested and proved worthy. My only problem right now is the #@%** manual. It's in English, but that's the best I can say about it. It doesn't do much to answer any questions I have. Also, they have a tech support, but it's long distance from the East Coast. I'm not very happy about that. Anyway, it's still a phenomenal keyboard.