I'm using a new amp with my 9000 Pro, the Motion Sound KP-200s. Last night was a rare night off so I played with it a lot, and I just setup at a large open-area restaraunt for my gig later tonight and got to really push it, so here's my thoughts. So far, I love it.

If you're not familiar with it, the KP-200s is a stereo keyboard amp, 2-channels, with a stereo enhancer. There's a good review of it in the Feb issue of Keyboard, which gave it a "Keybuy" award. It's 17"H, 23"W, 16 3/4"D, 55 lbs. Small and hefty. It's made specifically to sit behind you and face forward either as a stage monitor or as you entire amplication. One neat trick is that it has a "click" input with it's own volume control for inputting a click track - but this is ideal as a vocal monitor input because the amp does not pass the signal from the click input to the stereo XLR outputs to the PA.

I'm big on stereo amplification and most often use JBL EON's (except at the restaurant mentioned above which has a house system of powered Mackie speakers/mixer). I like to avoid taking a full mixer/PA setup when possible so many gigs I have pulled off with just the 9000 Pro and the JBL EON's, but I have found that a preamp in the form of a mixer does help round out the sound give the system more punch. Having said all that, I have found a substitute in the KP-200s, which is nearly the same size as a pair of my powered EON 10 G2's. The KP-200s is overpoweringly loud, yet perfectly clean with no discernable distortion at high volume. The sound is full and amazing. Plenty of bass too. You could pull off a small auditorium gig with this (I have such a gig later this week so we'll see).

The stereo enhancer is the kicker: it works very well and is vital to an amp like this. It really makes the sound come from "around" the amp rather than just from the front. Without it, the sound is rather dull and just sounds like it's coming from a set of speakers set close together - with it, it sounds like you've seperated the speakers and made them invisible! The effect carries well off stage too. I guess you'd call this psychoacoustic amplification. The effect doesn't work with mono inputs, only stereo. It has the effect of enhancing the reverb so it helps to tone this down on the keyboard a little.

The amp has active EQ for bass/mids/treble, 5 is nominal and you boost or cut from there. The amp is a little retro in it's control appearance and simplicity... I would welcome more control over the range of the EQ controls but I can program that within the 9000 Pro anyway. Also the XLR stereo outputs will be handy for using my JBL EONs as satellites, maybe even for occasional surround-sound.

I can't wait to use this for a band gig. It should be perfect for that. Otherwise I'm impressed with the unit's size and performance and would recommend it readily. It really makes the 9000 Pro sound as good as it should and is far better than any mono amp. A full PA will always sound a tad bit better but for a single compact keyboard amp unit, this is going to be hard to beat.
http://www.motion-sound.com/

Pro,
Very cool looking amp....can you mix the stereo signal on board for balance L&R? Does it have output for recording direct from it, or would it need to be mic'd?

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jam on,
Terry
http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html

Motion Sound also has another stereo amp coming out very soon . The KP100 . !

I love being a motion sound dealer .

Dano

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Piano Man's Music City
624 Frederick Rd .
Catonsville Md. 21228
410 747 0200
danosmusic@yahoo.com

Terry: there is no controls for balancing L/R. The controls are very simple - almost retro-simple as I mentioned. Each channel has two pairs of unbalanced stereo inputs, all inputs available simulataneously. The only outputs are the L/R XLR outputs on the back so I guess you could record off this.

More about the stereo expander effect - it's a phase control like that found on other devices like "vocal eliminators". By reversing the phase you get an "expand" effect but you tend to lose instruments that are "centered" more than those that are panned. Reverb tends to come out more. But it does have an interesting blending-effect that tends to work a bit like compression.

I'm always thinking about how to best improve my sound without making my setup unwieldy. Currently, I use one JBL Eon10 G2 powered speaker. It sounds good, but I would love to get the stereo sound without greatly increasing the weight of my setup. As mentioned by Scott Yee and others in various threads, there are some phasing problems with many styles and voices on the PSR2000 when they are reproduced in mono.

I am definitely going to check out the
KP-100S when it comes out in April. The
KP-200S looks bigger and heavier than what I need. Will the KP-100S be able to produce enough low end? I'll have to see. In the meantime, I haven't even paid for my JBL Eon10. I got a year of no payments from Guitar Center. It's kind of farcicle, but if the KP-100S is as good as it looks, I might sell the JBL for a loss before I even pay for it. Oh well.

Beakybird

How much will the KP-100S go for, and will it be possible to get a gig bag for it?

Beakybird