Well, in all fairness, the PA2 is a mature product well into its' second OS, the Audya is still in beta, with many promised and IMO essential features still unimplemented. But only you can decide for yourself if either is the arranger for you...

Pluses for the Audya are the live audio drums (and to a lesser extent, guitars) which have a realism pretty much unmatched. The problem is, of course, that realism comes at the expense of being able to do ANY editing and changing to it whatsoever. Depending on your needs, this may not be a problem.

Pluses for the Korg are, IMO, a level of voice editing that is only matched by TOTL WS's, great style editing flexibility, good live sound and a decent sampler. Plus the new DNC (think SA2) type voice allocation and a pretty good Guitar mode.

But, after all is said and done, the technical advantages of one over the other count little compared to how well they suit your preferences in styles... Every manufacturer is a little different, some make styles that are pretty busy, and leave you little to do but play a melody, some are more stripped down (not in number of parts, but in how busy they are) and leave you more room to play. How you react to those and feel about the issue is pretty much a personal thing, and, to be honest, only playing them and seeing if you feel swamped or left standing alone is really the only way to tell...

Of course, Audya owners will tell you 'buy an Audya' and Korg owners will tell you... well, you know what they'll tell you But sadly, the only way to be SURE is to try them for yourself.

The huge price difference comes from a couple of things. The Audya uses a lot of quite new technology, and was developed by quite a small company (over several years ) by themselves, so the cost of doing that has to be recovered. Plus, at least here in the States (and I expect in other countries, too), Ketron don't allow the dealer much margin to play with, so discounts are slim. Korg, OTOH, have a worldwide organization, and play the game similar to most other companies. If the dealer feels he will sell more at a slimmer margin, they let him. In these troubled economic times, you may be in luck when a dealer decides he would rather let a product go at a slim margin than carry it on his books too long...

But to make a decision between the two is up to you alone, sport...! Listen to all the demos, read all the manuals, try to decide what are your needs and priorities, and you should come to a decision. Then go and play them if you can, and decide afterwards