Hey gang I thought a thread about our experiences with the different boards as far as reliability and if there have been problems might be useful as a resource, for those considering a new board.

I'll start with the PA 80:

My first one out of the box, the floppy drive did not work. My second one worked flawlessly (almost) for about 1 1/2 years. The occasional lock up was usually the only problem I had.

They could use far better support for this board as well. I have not been a huge fan of Korg support and have not had great experiences with them in that respect.

I saw that others had problems with it though, like speaker cut out and speaker noise. And several with stuff not working right out of the box.

OK, your turn.....
Terry

[This message has been edited by trtjazz (edited 11-03-2002).]

I had a problem with the X1. The first one had a display problem (where the backlit screen would flicker constantly), and the second X1 had a HD failure. But once resolved, it has been working perfectly.

Danny,
I think this is one of the best things we can learn from the forum. Not so much to beat up on the different boards but to be aware of some of the issues from real users and make a decision. After all I think that's part of what the forum is about ....exchanging honest info and opinions on the boards. I have heard about a couple of x1 problems similar to yours.
Terry

[This message has been edited by trtjazz (edited 11-03-2002).]

I had a a couple of arrangers that actually scoffed at MY playing!
ZUK

Hmmm

I owned a used Roland E16 once that froze up every once in a while..

My Roland E500 on the other hand had its power supply changed twice and the disk drive damaged my disks until that too was replaced...it function perfectly after that

My PA80 has worked flawlessly out of the box since I've had it; the only issue was a third party installation (the USB interface) which has since been resolved.

It is true that others have had occasional problems, but the frequency of them has decreased dramatically with the more recent operating systems.

I have owned the Solton X1, the Yamaha PSR740, and the Yamaha PSR2000. The X1 was such a lemon, it was unbelievable. I had to ship it back to New York three times. The optional footpedal also had to be returned. Once when they sent me back the keyboard, and I took it out of the box, four loose screws came out with it.

Given that I used the PSR740 day in and day out, it held up pretty well. I owned two of them. One of them had problems twice with the a/c insert. One of them had a total failure that needed a new main board.

Of the two PSR2000s I have owned, one had a buzzy speaker right out of the box.

I play about 500-600 gigs a year. With both PSR2000s, I have had problems with the Style Control buttons starting to fail. It was such a hassle to have this repaired by a Yamaha authorized repair, that I had one repair done by a teenage tech geek I know. He did a better repair than the Yamaha techs.

Recently, I had the internal amp on one of the PSR2000s start to go, this is after a year of heavy use. The tech put in a new main board.

Now on my other PSR2000, I'm starting to notice some speaker buzz.

If you gig heavily with the PSR2000, you better own two of them.

I would be interested in hearing others' experiences.

Beakybird

I had problems with the slide volume control of Rolands E86, E96 .
I had problems with Start/stop and fill buttons of my G800.
The kbs of my Music School have the contact rubber of keys changed each year.(Some of these Kbs works 8 hours/day.)
Chico

First of all i think that problems mostly are due to yourself.
If you are somebody who are very careful abouth playing not too rough, pushing buttons and keys with respect and treat your equipment well (flightcases) your stuff will bring you less problems.
Here is my list of problems for the last ten years:
* Gem WS2 - Buttons replaced several times
* Gem WX2 - used abouth 500 gigs@5 hrs worldwide. Only mechanical problem with floppie drive - replaced.
* Roland G800 - Several frozen ups, updated 2 times and problems with an additional hard drive that caused problems with the power board. Fixed after 3 visits at Roland repair centre.
Pitch bender replaced after using it just a few times.
* Roland G1000 - CHEERIO!!! No problems at all after gigging with this machine abouth 300 times.
* Yamaha PSR 8000 - Right tweeter replaced, several buttons did not respond and recently contact rubber strip of the keys were wear out (replaced by myself). The buttons prolem is the scariest of all, the reliability of this board decreases enormously.

On my PSR 9000 I can't say as I recall any problems at all in all the time I ownded....a couple of years. No freezes, no buzz, no nothing.....and no brains on my part for trading it in.
Terry

here's my list since 1971:
1 hammond b3 with four leslies and a bass
amp system
1. rhodes piano
1. moog
1. string machine
1. wurlitzer electric piano
regarding the above except for tubes and minor
tuning on the pianos, no problems for 18 years.
2 roland d20=14 years with no problems
1 roland a30 with korg i5m= 7 years no
problems
3 korg pa80's and 1 pa60 less than 2 sets
each before breakdown.

Wrinkles,
"3 korg pa80's and 1 pa60 less than 2 sets
each before breakdown."

Not a great track record on these huh?
Terry

Wrinkles,

What went wrong? I want documentation, not gossip. That is, I may not believe you. I certainly don't believe Terry....:-)

I want everyone to knoe that I had 10 PSR2000's and 2 Tyros in 3 weeks, and they all broke down after 2 minutes of playing...

(I wonder if it had anything to do with the flamethrower.....


------------------
www.flamencochuck.com

wrinkles,
I take you at your word and do not question your honesty, as I am sure the other members do as well.
Terry

[This message has been edited by trtjazz (edited 11-03-2002).]

Here is my list:
-Roland (D50, D70, JD800, JD 990, XV 3080, E20, ProE, RA90, G800, VA7): only a software problem with the VA7 which froze due to a wrong key-press sequence; just had to reload the OS and it worked fine.
-Korg (M1, T3): no problems
-Kurzweil (K 1200): no problems
-Akai (S1000, S2800): no problems
-Ensoniq (ASR10m): often freezes and I have to restart it, then it works fine (for a while, that is...)
-Yamaha (DX7, DX7IIFD, SY77, TG77, SY99,PFP100, 9000 pro): no problems
-Ketron (MS50, SD1, XD3): had to take the SD1 two times to the repair center for major hardware problems (three internal boards already replaced); right now I have a problem with a fuse which keeps blowing every time I power up the keyboard, so I think there is something wrong within the power section; next week I will take it to the repair center for the third time in six months.

psr9000.. entire rubber keypad replacement on both my 9k units. one broken/cracked key needed replacement. screen flickers and freezes at times.

kn5000.. intro and fill buttons replaced, flip up screen hinge broken.

X1.. OS lock up

Oops...I forgot to add:
EMU (Proteus 1 and Vintage Proteus): BIG problem with the Proteus 1 when I tried to solder an expansion board inside; but it was my fault: I did burn something!

Roland RA800 (desktop module version of G800):

No problems whatsoever

--------------------------------------------

Technics KN5000:

Loose cable connection to Color LCD tilt screen. Had to open KB and reconnect (tighten) cable. Easy fix.

Broken white key: Caused by object falling on the KB at the club. Relatively easy replacement by me.

--------------------------------------------

Yamaha PSR2000:

No problems whatsoever.

Others I'vr had that weren't arrangers....
Motif no problems
Karma No problems
Alesis Andromeda Rare occasional restart needed.

Sound modules:
Emu Planet Earth,Triton Rack both trouble free.

Roland XV 3080....first one out of the box the left channel had no output, second one trouble free.
Terry

Roland EM55 I tried at retailer (saw him take it out of the box), brand new, never played before: 80 series styles (ballads) did not function.
Roland EM20 (owned for 2 yrs): No problem
Used Yamaha PSR540: No problem
Starkeeper

Forgot about problem with PSR540. When I change voices, while holding a note, the current voice conks out. When I do this on the Roland, the voice changes when I press the next note, perfect.
Starkeeper

Arrangers:

PSR530 - none

PSR740:- pitch wheel broke less than a year of use. Waited 11 weeks for repair.

PSR2000: Bad OS problems ( registration memories ) from day one - never resolved after 2 plus months.

PSR 1000: ( that temporarily replaced the 2000 ) : None

Casio MZ2000 : None ( A few samples were a bit muffled or had buzzing noise, not sure if that was a bug or bad sampling )

Korg PA80 w/ optiional VH board: None

Non Arrangers:

Motif: ( w/ optional AN 150 board ) : none

Korg M1 : had a very early release with the well documented Eprom / memory malfunction. very poor support from Korg on this.

Yamaha CP25 electric piano: None.. My closest friend's daughter still uses it, and it works like a charm.

Korg Poly Six: None ( til it died in a flood )

Roland Juno 60: none ( did not have it very long )

Hohner Clavinet: None

Silvertone Organ: None, but burned up after I installed a homemade distortion preamp.

AJ

I am still using Roland G-1000. In three years I have had one problem - for no apparent reason (while sitting on a stand in my home studio), ZIP drive had crapped out on me, then a few days later it started working again. Although it has been working OK since (this was a year and a half ago), I have no idea why the problem occured in the first place, and have a constant worry in the back of my mind that this might happen again. To protect myself, I copied my most-used styles into the 16 flash memory locations, so that at least I can continue to play if this happens on a day of a performance. I don't care to classify this a a major or a minor problem - the unpredictability is a pretty major issue to me, along with the fact that I could not get any support from the local dealer.

I also have a Roland E70 since 1992 - one time one key started getting stuck. I opened the keyboard and cleaned the keys well with alcohol swabs. This has fixed the problem.

Have had no problems any of my other gear from Yamaha, Akai, Kawai and Korg.

Regards
Alex

documentation is on a previous post. just
type in "pa80 not good ??" in the search
part of this forum. i don't mean to degrade
or insult anyone that has this machine. i did try to use this, its just not for me.
regards
wrinkles303

Ensoniq's: Chip creep, dodgy sliders
PSR 640: Noisy volume pot
Damn near any wall-wart or brick power supply: cable failure