Hi guys,
did anyone of you ever played (or tested) one of those keys?

What do you think about the sound quality - is there a noticeably improvement from PSR 290 to the new PSR 295(293)?

Or should I at least take the PSR 450?


Thank you,
Thomas

P.S. I'm a pure beginner...

As a beginner I would suggest PSR1500 or better still Korg PA50, both are good and offer a lot for the price. Anything less and you will spend money wanting to change within a short time.

To me the benefit of the 295 is a low priced keyboard to use as a second dummy manual to make your number one board into a second manual.
If you split your main upper board at the last key left, the lower board can be set to trigger all your Accompanist parts and give you all 61 keys to do that.
A PSR295 can be obtained UK for £160.



[This message has been edited by Graham UK (edited 10-19-2005).]

Thanks Graham,

no doubt that these are great keyboards, but they are by far out of my budget...

I own a 295 for teach music classes.
Excellent voices and styles and very easy to operate.In the past I owned a 290.
Both are a great bang for buck.
Chico

Chico
thanks, has there been a noticeable improvement of the sound quality from PSR 290 to 295 or are there only minor changes?

best regards,
Thomas

Sunfactor,
If you're considering buying the PSR-450 I would strongly suggest you look at the Casio WK-3700 for the same price. In my opinion MUCH more bang for the buck. Also you can even get the current WK-3500 for less (new).

Squeak

Hi Thomas,
I haven't played either of them, but I do own a dxg305 piano. I would imagine the sounds would be similar to the 293/295.

Keep in mind a couple of things. The 293/295 midi interface is via usb, which is usually easier to set up than using midi cables etc should you you ever want to midi the keyboard to your computer. You should therefore check how a psr290 connects to a computer ? It may be via usb also, but I doubt it.

Second point, PSR293/295 don't appear to have a facility for loading additional user styles? if that's the case, you're stuck with the styles that are in the keyboard.
The PSR450 appears to have a floppy drive for loading styles, but it doesn't appear to connect to a computer via usb. It usually ends up being a bit more costly & difficult to midi up to your computer, should you wish to do so.

Having said that, should you get either a 293/295, down the track if you decided you did want to have additional styles you could connect your keyboard & computer together and use software like One Man Band to play your styles ie you use your psr 295 for sounds & keys and one man band ( OMB ) for your styles. Your inexpensive keyboard doesn't have to become redundant as your needs grow.

Another option may be a dgx305 or 505. They both connect to computer via usb interface. They can load one user style only ( which is a bit of a pain, but better than nothing.

I use One Man Band software for editing my psr/dgx user styles. I also use it as an arranger midi to my computer/dgx.

Below link to a yamaha site, you can dowload specs & manuals for the keyboards. Do a bit of a comparison, you don't want to dash out & buy the wrong one. http://tinyurl.com/8ruck http://www.yamaha.com/yamahavgn/CDA/List/ModelSeriesListLE/0,,CTID%253D205100%2526CNTYP%253DPRODUCT,00.html

Below is a link for the software I mentioned http://www.1manband.nl/omb.htm
For people that have their computers midied to a keyboard, it can help turn a very inexpensive keyboard into a full fledged arranger. It doesn't improve sound quality, polyphony etc but it does give you access to user styles & style editing, sequencing etc which is after all what arranger keyboards are about.
Take your time & do your homework.

best wishes
Rikki

I sell all the Yamaha and Casio models and I have to agree with Squeak here. For the money you can't beat the Casio CTK900 (a 61 key version of the WK3200 at $199.00) or the WK3200 with 76 keys and a smart media card slot for $299.00. The Yamaha's just don't have as many features and both have very good sounds.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

Thanks alot for your great replys!!

I always thought Casio keyboards were more toys than musical instruments and Yamaha would be the leader in sound quality...
But now after reading your replys to the CTK900 (WK3700) and downloading the demos, i'm very astonished about the superb sound quality of the acoustic-, e-piano and synthesizer sounds! Remembering this sound category very well on the Yamaha DGX-300: Absolutely no chance to compete with Casio - IMHO.

But I'm not so sure about the quality of Casio-styles. What do you think about it compared to Yammi...?

Thanks again to all of you,
Thomas

[This message has been edited by sunfactor (edited 10-21-2005).]

Now i had the opportunity to test the last generation: WK 3500 and DGX 300.

Liked very much the piano voices of the Casio! But via (quality) headphone i noticed sometimes some distortion or lets call it harshness at some other voices/drums. Can someone confirm this?

Still not sure about the styles... Sometimes I think the Yami styles are better. But because I'm a beginner in accompanimant-keys i would be very grateful if someone of you would post your personal opinion. Thanks!

-Thomas

[This message has been edited by sunfactor (edited 10-21-2005).]