Hello everybody!

It's again time to get some new equipment (that regular GAS ), a synth on particular. I already own a Korg PA50 and a Roland JV35, which I'm going to sell to make room for a new one. There are two main options, Yamaha EX5 and Roland XP80. Only these two, because there are not many pro quality used keyboards for sale in here often and now I've found both of them.

The seller asks about 700-750 euros for EX5s, which seems to be in quite good condition, and about four or five years old. No gigging, only used on a home studio.

The other alternative, XP80, is also in good condition according to seller. It also has one expansion board installed, SR-JV80-97, Experience III and a bag. I'm not sure about the price of this but i'd guess it would be something like 500-600 euros.

The use would mostly be playing with band, so it should be easy to change sounds and other basic stuff quickly. I would also just play around with it by myself because we play at my carage, so some more complicated tweaking possibilities would also be good. (I've read that this would be the EX's strong point.)

I've read a lot of the EX5 from this forum and elsewhere but there seems not to be more recent topics than from 2003 or so. (of course ex5tech but I wouldn't want to register there just to write one question) Some more recent comments about both boards would be very welcome.

How do they compare to each others by all functions and to my PA50 sound wise? I'm quite satisfied with the sounds of the PA50 but I certainly need a solid board with good keyfeel for band playing. The build quality is the biggest drawback to me in the Korg. Would it be worth it to midi it with the main keyboard? All of them have equally good sounds I suppose, of course some are better in Korg and some in Yamaha and some in Roland, but as a whole.

Oh, I almost forgot the budget, the reason why Tritons and Motifs and Fantoms are not in the shopping list. The EX5 is quite in the upper level of my budget, 750 euros is quite a maximum amount of money I can spend now.

What a long post this became. Hopefully you have the strength to read this. (Quite a difficult expression to find the right words ) Any help and comments will be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance

I used the EX5 for years in my band and its sound is huge,the brass,strings,pianos are fantastic its got the VL,AN,alredy in it-I still today wish I never got rid of it

EX 5 over xp.
xp is great (also with is jv cards) but hardware wise ex is more solid and (think about fm,breath controller inputs) etc.

ex series are before motifs.
xp series are before fantoms.(xp pros-rps,direct disk play,more rom boards)-

both are great but i would prefer ex.

but piano wise xp( preset A001 64 voice pno is a killer).

Dave, how did you like your ex5 overall in band use? Was it quick to choose sounds and other main features? Otherwise the EX seems great but the ease of use in quick band situations is the thing I'm worried about.

Band use was great-find all the sounds you want,around three clicks on buttons and you can put them all in your own user bank-belive me its a huge sounding board,you will love it.