The keyboard arrived Monday evening, and I didn't take it out of the box until yesterday afternoon when I got home from work.

I purchased the keyboard from a friend who knew took care of it and it would be in pristine condition - which was absolutely the case. The display cover sheet had never been removed, there was not a single scratch or spec of dust and it was packed in the original box and sealed when it arrived via UPS. As for UPS, they'll never see another package from me. The box looked as if it had been dragged behind the delivery truck, had a couple holes punched in it, was mashed in on one side and dirty. When it was shipped to me from Alabama the box was like new. No wonder Fedex is top of the independent delivery list for most corporations.

OK, now that I've had a few hours to experiment with the S950, I can honestly say it has some really neat features, the guitars, for the most part, are pretty fantastic, the piano sucks - but I expected that, the drums are hot, the growl sax sucks, but some of the others more than make up for this. Some of the strings are just awesome, especially when layered with other string voices.

I haven't had time to plug a mic into the keyboard yet, but that will come later this afternoon when I get back home from today's job.

From the exploration I've done thus far I've discovered some great styles have been added, but right out of the box, the S-950 didn't sound nearly as good as the PSR-3000. When it comes to out of the box, the 3000 is still above and beyond anything Yamaha has produced, IMO, including the T4. And, that includes both styles and voices.

I was able to transfer my 3000's Music Finder Directly directly to the S-950 without a glitch. Of course, some of the new styles don't match up with the songs, so there were be a week or more of editing the 700 plus songs I have in my current MFD. Not a big deal though.

I'm still working with the EQs, and tonight, I'll connect the keyboard to the Bose L1 Compact and work with them some more. For me, the EQs are critical, both for the keyboard and the vocals - I need to sound better than Don Mason, DNJ and Diki when I'm singing and playing - and that's not an easy task.

The display is easy to read, but the tabs at the top of multiple page screens can be difficult to see if you're not sitting on a stool or standing. Sitting in a low chair I have to bend over the display to see what the tab says. The main screen is bright, crisp and has a very high resolution - far better than any other arranger keyboard display I've seen lately.

The key-feel is about the same, or maybe a bit firmer than the 3000, but this has never been an issue for me. I love those soft keys, especially when performing jobs that take more than a couple hours.

The button layout is a bit different than the 3000, but I anticipated that and it only took a few minutes to find most everything I needed. As for the button color, all of the ones that are used the most are white and easy to read. The others are light gray and all of the information needed is written in white above the buttons, so again, there's not a problem.

I have not taken the keyboard outdoors to look at the display in high light conditions, but I suspect it will be the same as most displays - unreadable unless in deep shade. And the button lights are still those darned, dim, LED lights that cannot be seen outdoors at all. Of course, if they were super bright LEDs indoor entertainers would be bitching that they were too bright, so I guess that's a no win situation unless the manufacturers were to put a dimmer control on the lights.

The onboard sound system is awesome - maybe too bassey if anything, but when I'm performing the onboard sound system is disabled because I want to hear what the audience hears so it's not a problem. However, I'm confident that the onboard amp is powerful enough to play living room parties and small NH jobs without any need to haul in another amp - it's that good.

One of the things I noticed right away was the right hand voices are an octave higher than on the 3000 and other Yamaha PSR models. Don't know what they did that, but it's easily overcome with the touch of a button. Also, the balance between the right hand voices and the accompaniment is definitely not anywhere near 50/50 in terms of volume. Again, this is easily overcome using the electronic slider and lowering the style volume a bit.

Overall, the keyboard sounds pretty darned good. But, I'm not sure it sounds better than the PSR-3000, at least not at this stage of the game. I'll know more in the next few weeks. If by that time I don't like it as much as the 3000, then it will go up for sale and still be in pristine condition, but with a lot of neat stuff loaded onboard.

More to come,

Gary