I haven't been able to find a Roland E-80 to demo...so I did the same thing ..I did with the E-60 and E-50...I purchased an E-80..

They are getting hard to find now that Roland has stopped shipping (out of stock)...

Sweetwater still has some at the original price ($3,999)...The $2,599 deals are just about all gone...Maybe I purchased the last one available...

Weight of the keyboard..I don't care..I am hoping the sound system measures up to what I expect...It is rated better than the VA7..and that had a decent sound system...

The 61 keys may be the downer for me..I am expecting them to be as good feel ..or better than the E-60..I hope they are not the same as the E-50....and I would really like the keys to be like my Juno Stage (very doubtful)..

Any way in a few days I should be able to post my first impressions.....and entertain any offers to buy..

I will have the advantage of side by side comparisons with the G70 and the MediaStation....I truly expect the E-80 to come in third place..

I will be curious to see if the E-80 tones are like the E-60/50...(lacking compared to the G70)...or does the E-80 have the richer sounds of the G70...My guess the E-80 will shine in the drums department, but won't fare as well in the piano department, compared with the G70..

I am hopeful the MP3 player is on par with the Juno Stage...Bebop likes the MP3 player on his E-80..

A few more days and I will have my answers...

oopppsss..Sweetwater is out of stock too..I don't see them any where now...

The joy of the E-80 is the ability to use the SRX cards. I recommend the Ultimate Keys one as a minimum. The pianos and organs on there are truly excellent.

Still nothing on the market I'd be tempted to swap my '80 for...

[This message has been edited by Seamaster (edited 07-29-2009).]

I have Ultimate Keys on my G70 and like it also.

Get ready for a bidding war for yours.

Fran,
the Original Roland published list price was/is 4995.00 USD.
Bebop

Current street price in Europe is <$3000.

Fran,
the sound engine in the E80 is the same as the G70 but with a little added internal rom. The keys will feel much better than an E50 or E60. It's the weight that bothered most people. Very heavy!
Yesterday I had a visit from my Roland Rep and we talked about the state of the arranger keyboard from Roland. It seems he has as little information as the rest of us. I was told that all G70,s E80s and soon all E50's and E60's if not already, will be gone from Roland's USA warehouse. This leaves just the E09, EXR46oriental, GW8, Prelude (same as GW8 but with speakers) left in their lineup. I asked if Roland was getting out of the arranger business and the answer was a big "I just don't know at this moment". It seems that there is not much conversation between the Roland management and sales reps regarding the arrangers. My guess is with a poor economy, Roland is not going to spend much money on developing new products right now. Who knows what the future might bring!


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

Well I guess all you Roland player’s better hold on to your arrangers because you may not see any others in a while. I tend to believe Roland is going to stop making higher end arrangers and just keep lower end ones (if that). Roland USA has pretty much drove their arranger market in the ground. They had their arrangers MI division and than switched them to the CK division, which halted the larger chain stores to carrying high end arrangers. It too bad….

OTOH, if they continue to produce them for the European markets (apparently, Roland are fairly strong over there), it shouldn't be THAT hard to get them over here...

Even though RolandUS managed to balls things up over here royally, there's still the possibility that, as the economy rebounds, they (Roland Europe) may revisit the high end again.

In the meantime, were I to be stranded on a desert island with ONE keyboard for the rest of my life, I'd still be pretty happy to take a G70