I just gor the PA500-My Take

Background:
My Opinion-I have PSR-3000, E50, and Now PA500. PA500 has definately some better sounds than my Yamaha, and Roland when it comes to individual instruments like guitar, wind instruments-sax, trumpet, and trombone, strings, but Yamaha excels in brass-when used as the 3rd voice over the backing track ensambles, EP, and Roland excels in organs, scat sounds, and synth . Styles-Yamaha excels in sheer number of standards/songbook, while Roland has an edge in realism for original creations. Yamaha does seem to be better in ease of use with operating system when storing registrations of songs, mixing, and recording. Yamaha also has the most dynamic-hot, sound system when played through a mixing board followed by Roland-Korg. I'm just glad I am using all three of these keayboards in tandem since they each bring something to the table that the others lack-now I just need to get all these keyboards to work in tandem to max out each of their benefits while minimizing their drawbacks. Bottom line-it is just sad that no one manufacturer does it all...of course your opinion may differ.

I have a PSR 1500 and a Pa500. I agree with you, the sounds in the Korg are far better than the Yamaha´s at this range of keyboards and most of the sounds are usable. Yamaha has, on the other hand, a much easier operating system and practical way of storing styles and songs. With the SM card and Usb stick all the styles are at the tip of your fingers almost instantly. I even prefer the buttons rather than the touch screen which I can´t use well for fast changes. I have never owned a Roland so I can´t compare it yet. And yes, the internal sound system and speakers are better in the Yamaha. I use all my keyboards in tandem so I don´t miss anyone.
Victor.

Since I do a lot of original work in my home studio I found that by sending all the outputs to my mixer I can tweak the volume levels to balance all 3 keyboards to play through the studio monitors pretty easy, but no matter how you slice it I am still constantly fiddling with the onboard mixers too. My new Korg PA500 is a great comapanion board to my Yamaha, and my Roland. Now I just need to crack the manual to learn how to customize my own styles I'll be in great shape.