Amhad,
I think that Ketron made a 100% improvement in the looks of the new SD-1: VERY PROFESSIONAL looking to me. I orginally had thought the look was dated, but the more I see it, the more I have grown to like the 'new' look. I always felt the acoustic piano patch on the X1 was "real bad", but on the SD-1 this has been addressed, and I now feel that the SD-1's acoutic piano patch is now among the very best. I was VERY impressed.

It's really a TOUGH decision between the SD-1 & Yamaha 9000pro.

SOLTON SD-1
PROS: Excellent size/weight factor. Relatively lightweight and small form factor for ease of getting in/out of a car (gig transport). Terrific sounds/styles. Style change feature which allows you to easily retain/remove specific parts. Nice cosmetic design begining to appeal to my aesthtics.
CONS: floppy disk mounted on top is rather ugly. buttons are all the same shape/size making it harder to locate. Bad reliability reputation of Italian made products. Does not support professional keyboard playing style (advanced chord recognition).

YAMAHA 9000pro
PROS: Great sounds/styles. The acoustic piano patch is outstanding. Button layout is superb (ergonomic) for easy access to controls. Beautiful sleek looking design. Keyboard action (responsive) is excellent for a synth keyboard. Supports professional keyboard playing style (advanced chord voicings). Yamaha's excellent record for reliability.
CONS: Too HEAVY for easy transport. The keyboard could have easily been made shorter by simply moving the mod wheels above the keyboard rather than to the left. This would have made the 9000pro MUCH easier to fit into a smaller car.

Scott

[This message has been edited by Scottyee (edited 02-10-2001).]