my source here in australia(a musical instrument importer/retailer) said that apparently Ketron are experiencing some financial issues at the moment, and that the Audya, expected to help turn things around, has masses of software issues, and not to expect it much before next april/may at the earliest....this guy knows his stuff and has contacts EVERYWHERE, so i pay attention to what he says...has anyone else heard anything like this overseas?

My personal guess is that the Audya could be officially introduced at the next Frankfurt Musik Messe (March-April 2008) and this means that it will arrive in the shops one year from now, and of course the first batch will have software problems, that will be corrected by an OS update , so I wouldn't hold my breath...

P.S.: I live in Italy and still remember attending the SD1 demo tour in the Spring of 2001: the first items arrived in the shops after the summer and had a lot of problems.


[This message has been edited by Dreamer (edited 08-17-2007).]

All Rumors....just be patient until the AUDYA Release.

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 08-17-2007).]

Patience... Not a quality often seen here

But if companies want to avoid the "what's the problem?' backlash from delayed releases (or. probably more to the truth, overly optimistic release dates from the Marketing Divisions), they might start to wait until a product is nearly finished before announcing it....

As much horse trading and arranger hopping as goes on in this forum, they shouldn't really worry that a potential customer got something else in the meantime - they will surely sell it in a flash and get their new product when it hits the shelves.

IF.... it lives up to the hype...

im not impatient about the release of the audya board (i dont think i will want to buy one anyway, after what is possibly going to be on offer from Korg and Roland)..its just i heard this, and wondered if it was being heard elsewhere.

I would tend to agree, the best selling keyboard that ketron ever made was MS40/50/60 at a retail price of 1700+/-.

the keyboards after the ms50 were major improvements but never best sellers like the ms series. I think ketrons are being put out at very high prices vs the market and what people can afford. Ketron no longer has a keyboard under $2000, unless the xd9 is still production. but even that had big problems. I being a very big ketron fan and owning most of the boards after the ms50 find myself wanting to turn to yamaha or a korg because of there price points. the last ketron I purchased was the sd5 and I offen think if I should had waited for yamaha s900 instead & (also save a couple of buck too).

Whats didnt you like about the Sd5....or any of the other Ketron units besides the price.

I loved them but there a lot of repeatition from X1 through Sd5. I guess I'm kinda of bored of the ketron products. same os, almost the same look, I have to say that the guitars are a hugh improvement. but not as good as the yamaha t-2 guitars. I wished sd5 had those guitars.

Just to be fair.....the retail price of the MS50 and MS60 were over $3000.00 back in 1996. I started selling them at that time and the street price for an MS60 was still over $2400.00. I agree that the prices they sell for these days is too expensive compared to the competition and features, but there are those musicians who think the styles and sounds in the Ketrons are worth the higher prices. Year after year, I speak with the owners of the company from Italy and express my concern for the continued higher prices but the response is never in my favor!


------------------
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

There are those that think that Wersi's are worth the money too (and E80's, but that's another story!), but there aren't enough of them for the company to start making inroads into any of the major's sales figures.

If Ketron don't mind becoming 'boutique' arranger makers like Wersi and Bohm and Lionstracs, then being financially competitive isn't really important. But R&D isn't cheap, and getting dealers to stock overpriced arrangers is getting harder and harder (can't get most dealers to even stock the majors, these days!), and they need to be cautious they don't get undersold...

Also don’t forget the current low value of the US Dollar.

Thru the years, I've owned and performed with 4 Ketron KB Products....X1, XD9, Midjay, SD1+, never had a problem.....always great sound.

MS60, MS100 , X1, and SD1..same results never a problem...Of course I was a Ketron dealer for the first three..


Forgot the TS-4..

[This message has been edited by Fran Carango (edited 08-21-2007).]

Doesn't that affect ALL arrangers? Not too many built in the US, these days...

If you’re a big company you can take a hit on profits to keep prices down, knowing that you will make it back when the Dollar improves.
Smaller companies don’t have the luxury of these vast amounts of reserves, and so their prices have to follow the market.

I have always loved ketron products and is a hardcore ketron user and many of my friends. but I can't help but feel ketron raised the bar with the ms50/100 then the x1, that other keyboard companies couldn't reach. but now it's like korg & yamaha, (i'm guessing roland also, haven't tried the g70 yet) have just raced by ketron waving goodbye. I think SD5 is a wonderful keyboard most likley the best sounding keyboard in the ketron line. but a big disappointment with the missing features that a $1500 keyboard has. no usb, or flash card, $400 for a hard drive, still using floppy drive. Also I purchased the SD2 and no usb. I guessing with the audya will incorporate all of the missing features but at what price.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think Yamaha has touched on a very good thing. Making a very good keyboard that is a baby tyros at a under 2k price tag and they didn't skip out on very good features. There will always be big ticket flagship keyboards but what i come to realize that you don't need to bankroll a keyboard anymore to get a good keyboard. (and yes still a diehard ketron user for now)!!

Also the problem that I had was with the SD1, too many updates and the XD9 the bass and the acomp. would drop out when I would use certain instruments.

[This message has been edited by mc (edited 08-22-2007).]