Hi rb, I finally had the opportunity to audition the PAS today and found its mid frequency clarity and natural presence, especially on vocals (like you stated) particularly impressive. In fact, the sound appeared remarkably similar to my Bose 802's, which I sold a couple of months back. My one disappointment with the PAS is in its inability to reproduce the Yamaha 'stereo sampled' pianos to my liking. It's become apparent to me that Yamaha intended their acoustic piano voices to ONLY be played in stereo, and that mixing to mono (even thru new Bose PAS) will not surfice. Read more of my PAS impressions here: http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML/008596.html

Scott

Scott,
I read your post. Thanks for clearing up the stereo issue. I think I played with a monitor too much, so I get less critical of stereo but more critical of the ability to control my sound instead of depending on the soundman.

I'm glad you took the time to try out the Bose system.

Oh, by the way, did you also try to pack the system up by yourself and see how long it take? Or did a complete setup of the system and see how long that take also? Pretty quick, right?

..rb

rb: You pointed out another plus I appreciated with the PAS, the ability to monitor and control the PA EQ/levels right from your keyboard via the PAS remote control unit.

As far as 'stereo' vs 'mono' goes, That in itself is NOT the issue with me, but instead, the fact that converting & mixing a stereo signal to a mono output cancels out all 'effects' which Yamaha implemented in the original sampled acoustic piano sounds. These effects are what give them their lifelike sparkle. Think of how your vocals would sound if you removed all reverb & effects (chorusing etc) from it. It doesn't matter whether it's in stereo or mono, vocals & keyboard sounds suffer without (at least a little) reverb effect. Playing a Yamaha stereo sampled acoustic piano voice thru a mono output sounds to me like all effects enhancements were stripped, leaving just the fundemental sound only (no harmonic overtones).

Scott