I agree. Prices are becoming ridiculously prohibitive for high-end arrangers. For instance, my Tyros1 was half the price of a Tyros3 or Tyros4. And that's just in a few short year(s) time span we're talking about. But Yammie, Korg and Ketron are able to get away with charging these ridiculous amounts because far too many consumers seem willing to oblige manufacturers and keep forking over wads of money every three or four years i.e. every arranger "cycle" when each successive product comes out and will likely upgrade to the next supposedly latest greatest arranger product. You have to remember most arranger players are 'older' i.e. many of them are retirees with mountains of cash to "burn". >> You know, like DonM and Fran have.
lol
If consumers banded together to withhold their enormous stashes of money manufacturers would be obligated to significantly reduce their ridiculous prices to more reasonable standards needless to say. If they didn't they would start to teeter on the edge of financial collapse and eventually go "belly up" if they refused to do an about face. Without "us" they are
nothing needless to say. That is the reason they exist in the first place i.e. because a sufficient amount of consumers buy their products thus giving them a viable market to sell their product(s) in the marketplace. There would need to be a "revolt" among consumers essentially telling keyboard manufacturers we simply refuse to pay your ridiculously exorbitant prices for your high-end products any longer and it wouldn't be long before Yammie, Ketron, Korg (and others) would have to submit and comply to the will of their customer base and potential customer base and you would see their prices drop across the board as a result. Until that happens, Yammie, Korg, Ketron (and others) will be all too happy to keep charging "an arm & leg" for their products to naive consumers who seem oblivious to the "rip-off" that is dangled in front of them like a worm on a hook to a pack of otherwise hungry fish. Or in this particular scenario hungry
consumers with many of them having 'mountains' of cash to burn and nowhere better to spend it apparently. Easy come, easy go, right?
Now before anyone gets riled up or feels offended I am a consumer, just like you - and I am only saying these things for consumer(s) benefit, not to denigrate people with mounds of cash to burn who buy prohibitively expensive high-end arranger products every two or three years - on a whim.
To each his own. But prices will continue to "skyrocket" if enough consumers continue to fork over these ridiculous amounts of money for these bloody keyboards that still only have 128 note polyphony (except the Audya which has 197) and in Yammie's case - still only has 61 keys and still encased in a 'plastic' shell with minuscule amounts of internal memory coming as standard. And for that matter the Ketron as well has only minuscule amounts of internal memory.
When will we
wake up??