If you guys are judging the Motif XF sound quality by that YouTube video you shouldn't. I played the Motif XF8 in person and I can tell you firsthand the sounds on it are very, very good to excellent in quality. Compared to the Motif XS (which I owned for a short while) the sounds on the Motif XF are slightly an improvement in my opinion. One thing Yamaha does well is in giving their workstations very good sounds, especially in the Acoustic sound category. I noticed that the Synth sounds on the Motif XF are very nice also. Kudos to Yamaha for continuing their tradition of providing excellent bread 'n butter sounds as well as very good to excellent Synth type sounds too.

Another thing I'd like to point out is that the "melding" of workstation's and arrangers is coming closer together as we see with the new Motif XF. It would be nice if Yamaha added actual "styles" to their workstations but instead of calling them styles Yamaha could give them a more professional name - for the professional crowd who are mainly the people who buy high end workstations in the first place. Perhaps "Performance Beats" could fulfill that function but would need to include "intros, endings", eight instrument channels to give a full band sound, breaks/fills, etc., which they seem to partially do right now, at least in a rudimentary way.

One thing I wish Yamaha would try and change is the LCD screen on the Motif line which is still too small plus the resolution is substandard in my opinion. I also noticed there was a noticeable screen change "delay" when pushing some of the buttons on the XF which was frustrating to say the least. You want the buttons and menu screens to change instantly especially on stage during a live performance. The Tyros2/3 also have a noticeable screen change delay too, which is unfortunate. Apparently Yamaha is using older CPU chips?? that don't have the necessary "gumption" to keep up with everything in real time; at least as far as navigating between screens goes anyway. If the processor(s) are up to snuff there would be NO delay whatsoever, needless to say. Maybe Yammie is trying to save a buck (or two) in the production process although if they are they're being penny wise and pound foolish, as their customers are ultimately the one's that lose out and may well drive people away from Yamaha (and the Motif XF) and to other keyboard manufacturers - like Roland and Korg, etc.

All the best,
Mike