Peter Baartmans did a demo Monday at the store. One of the T4 Engineers from Japan was there. A little language barrier but I was able to bring up the "concerns" of many here (mostly non Yamaha users) Do not expect a 76 key Tyros.....Not gonna happen. Seems to me Yamaha is not going after or feels threatened at all by Roland or Korg or any other Arranger maker. They play to their crowd and most do not want a 76 keyboard in the Tyros by a long margin.

They put an XLR jack on the Tyros because "Europeans" asked for it...(why I have no clue. SM58s work as well with 1/4 cables. This "upgrade" made a lot of people happy who believe they need a 6 foot balanced cable and cost Yamaha maybe $2 to implement.

I inquired as to why no phantom power (which would have been a real reason for an XLR jack) Apparently no one asked for that and I figured it is not considered a single solution home/professional "studio" keyboard anyway. (Think Motif) It is a "performance" keyboard used by older people to entertain older people and a home organ replacement for those who yearn for the Lowery days. Neither of which requires a condenser mike.

Yamaha does research and apparently surveys current owners as to what they want and provides what they can. PKowner is a good site for information for them as is Motifactor for the Motif...... They seem to peruse the YAMAHA owners forums, nothing is arbitrary. They apparently do not poll Korg or Roland users as to what "would make them consider a Tyros?" Their OWN market is more important to them and primarily the HOME user who does not want a CVP and those who play out that want a light smaller keyboard that can cover a lot of bases. They don't seem to care about sounding like a "live" band. People in their homes don't know or care what a live band sounds like. They want to hear CD like quality. Those who do play out play to an older crowd who don't care about drums....They listen the whole.

Bottom line is Yamaha will sell Tyros 4 like they sold Tyros 3 and 2 to their fans and 910 owners who will move up to Tyros.
They have sold more with each version, They have continued where others have dropped out of the arranger market. They own the WS market. They already have the Motif for the live players and own 47% of the WS market. Korg's M3 was not match for their M1 or Triton success. Fantom has the Trance and Hip Hop looper crowd. "Kurzweil" is not Kurzweil anymore....

Tyros gets all of Yamaha's new technology first....From there it trickles down to the CVPs and the Motif.

Not to forget this is a TWO year update....Maybe they should have kept it at three? The 910 was a minor upgrade and worth the $50 increase. The Motif XF is a give and take away upgrade. No price increase. Tyros is a decent upgrade.....Is it worth 2 1/2 times the 910? Most of my customers say no by a huge margin.

If I was walking in from the street and after having a Tyros 3 and knowing the 910 would I buy a Tyros? Not at $4500 over $1750. I think either the 910 is under priced or the Tyros overpriced, The gap between is too wide.

One thing Yamaha has they won't mess with are LOYAL users. Yamaha users are as loyal and protective to the brand as they come. Their focus seems to be on CURRENT users not those who might be a user "if"


[This message has been edited by Kingfrog (edited 09-22-2010).]

[This message has been edited by Kingfrog (edited 09-22-2010).]