What do you think which of these keys does sound better? A used 550 of a new Casio?

Thanks again,
Thomas

The Piano on the WK3200 or WK3700 has a more robust grand piano sound. The other sounds would be pretty equal except the sax sounds on the WK series has more breath than what I remember in the 550. I also like the 76 key keyboard better on the Casio models. The styles would be your personal choice although they are both good.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

Hey rolled off the couch (just took a pian pill so bear with me) I checked the Zone real quick and felt the need to answer this one Then it's back to the couch.

Sunfactor,
I'm a former owner of the PSR-550. I can tell you that in (my) opinion the 3200/3700 in terms of sound quality is better in MANY areas. As George stated you're getting a better acoustic piano. However, that's not all. You're getting MUCH better bass guitars, and electric guitars as well, drawbar organs, (ability to edit voices--the PSR-550 doesn't do squat in terms of editing voice related paramters such as Res., C.off, Release, ect.)

The WK will also give you better synth sounds with WAY WAY WAY more sonic texture. Reason is that the WK's effects section make the PSR-550 look like a welfare case! That's no joke either.

The PSR-550 only allows you to adjust the overall effect (global) when it comes to DSP. The WK's let you edit WAY more than that. Each effect has multiple algorithms (not sure I spelled that right) that you can tweek to your liking.

The WK will give you 76 keys with larger keys that have a longer throw. The WK will also give you both pitchbend and modulation wheels (that are even better quality that the PSR-3000).

The 550 only has a floppy, and the WK has a smart media card on one model, and smart media and floppy on the other. The 3700 will also give you stereo outputs. The 550's headphone/output jack is absolute CRAP! You'll see and hear this when you hook the 550 up to an external recorder such as a hard disk unit.

The 550's overall sound quality will lack "punch" when compared to the Casio. Yes Yammie has their signature voices, but so does Casio. The only sax on the 550 that's decent is the sweet tenor. The WK's saxes run circles around the 550, and their is a beautiful saprano sax (wave sample) on the Casio site for download. Yammies saxes are just soooooo mushy and have no bottom end. The preset tenor sax on the 550 is dreadful. The alto is as well. The saprano is half decent. The Casio's saxes are AWSOME! The Velo Tenor and Velo Alto kick ass Plus with the new models 3200/3700 they have been improved upon.

The 550 will give you 16 tracks for recording, but it's a "direct disk" recorder. You have to have a floppy in the drive in order to record due to the PSR-550 having NO internal memory for song recording. It gets very annoying at times, and their is a CRAP load of button pushing just to record (one) track. I often found that the recording process on the 550 really got in the way of inspiration.

I dropped the 550 for a WK-3500 and NEVER look back on it The WK may only have 6 tracks for recording, and no style sequencer, but it GREATLY makes up for that in so many other areas. Besides Cakewalk will breath a whole NEW life into your WK

Squeak

George and Squeak, you helped me a lot - thanks!

Squeak, choosing my post to answer was a very wise decision and is a great honor!
How are you today, hope the headache has gone?

Great to hear that both of you estimate the sound quality of the Casio equal or better than the PSR-550. - In the meantime I found on the net other demos and I read a lot about keyboards in my price range. I think I will go for the Casio. My personal reasons are:

I love the acoustic piano, saxes, organs, synth sounds(!) and I'm blown away by the E-Piano! Many other instruments seem to be good as well.
Many variations of the sounds (many more than the PSR offers), thats very important to me.
The DSP sounds really impressing!
Possibilty to download styles, voices and waves(!) through the internet.

Thanks again and take care,
Thomas