Since playing the 9k professionally since January almost every day I can tell you this. Out of the box the 9k is not a great keyboard but.... with a minimum 100 hours of really getting into it's features one by one and understanding what this keyboard can do it approaches greatness for sure as an arranger keyboard. You have to really see what Yamaha has tried to do overall with this offering and I'll tell you for the money it can't be beat compared to many other units. Without going into detail too much I will say that in my experience so far you need to import some styles to make up for the stock ones that you cannot use. Free up the Flash ROM section by deleting all non-essential styles. Start to listen to every styles variation graduation 1,2,3,4, and determine if they will work for you. If not get into the recording section and take the unwanted variation and change the by rerecording parts to make it work for you. This can easily be done on the 9k. The HD is a pleasure to use also. Load your sequences into the unit, after tweaking them to your liking in the keyboard incorporate them into a Panel setting, this way when your on stage you just bring up that panel # and the 9k automatically gives you all setups R1, R2, R3. L. voices to play along if you wish. Navigation is so easy on the 9k also. The placement of the Buttons makes playing live a pleasure for sure. That's the reason I just bought another 9k for backup and studio work. Vocalizer and EFX are outstanding. Incorporating the 4 recordable (looped) Multi Pads into the style mix is essential for making those empty styles come alive in real time. Using the OTS feature can give you many ideas on sounds and effect to put into your mix also. The weight is no big deal 10 pound more or less is not going to change anything for big boys like us :>) compared to yeas ago carrying a 147 Leslie Tone Cabinet and huge Amps all over the place :>) As Dave said the 9k has great onboard speakers, but on stage they sought of blend into the mix against the stage amps volume which I like for my style of playing. I don't like that "in your face sound" it isolates me from my audience. I like a more general sound all around the room, but that's my way of performing. There are so many more things we can discuss on the 9k. I'm happy I took the time to learn this great unit. Don't try to access a unit in the store or out of the box, give it a good long tryout thru a PA system to make your final evaluation, and don't be afraid to dig into the manual and really get into the Features big time! So far it's Thumbs Up! For the 9k for me!

Donny NJ