I need to weigh in here. I work at a Retail Piano store in Sacramento and I sell Technics. I also Own a KN7000. I speak with the Technics Rep (Dan Uter) on a fairly regular basis, and I also speak with Chris Halon at times. I would tend to agree about griping about retail cost of the KN7000. The 'List" is really whatever we want it to be- but I have never sold a kn7000 for over 3,200$. Usually I will sell it for $3000 out the door. You cannot blame techincs for the way the dealers act. Make an offer. If a dealer is stupid and rejects it, then tell him to go stick the keyboard -you know where- and go buy one from me or Ebay. Technics has been very active as of late in trying to break into the MI market (guitar center etc) the problem is that the market is so saturated with other brands that Guitar Center cannot carry them. Yamaha and Roland and Korg pitched a fit because they knew that if a KN7000 was in guitar center for $2600 then they would lose ALOT of sales. So Technics has stuck the KN7000 in the "Home Market" for now. They really have no other option.


On the Harmonizer subject: Please do us a favor and do not buy the KN7000. If you are dumb enough to base purchasing a 7000 on the Harmonizer ability then you are missing a screw in your head. Get a dedicated unit. Trust me- They are much better than ones you will find in keyboards (yes even Ketron and Yamaha). I believe the KN series has a "midi implementation patch" with the Digitech Vocalist workstation as well just for that purpose. Also- If you dont know how to sing- then the Mic input will sound pretty bad regardless of the harmonizer feature. Why anyone would think that a 9000pro or Tyros is better than a 7000 because it has a better harmonizer is beyond me. What really matters to me is that you cannot even assign MIDI tracks on a tyros or 9000pro (such as drums to track 10). That is a basic MIDI function and it has been left out intentionally by Yamaha. That to me is a bigger problem than a crappy harmonizer,

My 2 cents. Ben