Stopped at my local GC and there it was. I had my headphones with me so I turned it on and tried it out. It was a Korg Kronos 61 Key Model.

First, the boot time was quite long compared to my Tyros 3. Worse then my Windows 7 Laptop.

The Keyboard was very nice. I liked the feel. It was close to the Tyros feel but maybe a little bit heavier.

The overall look and feel of the unit is excellent. It looks and feels like a quality unit. Switches and buttons have a nice feel and do not look cheap or flimsy. This is much better than the M3. The only issue is that, while the unit has metal case, the end caps are a shiny piano black plastic that will certainly show wear.

The Acoustic Piano sounds are also excellent and there are a lot of them to choose from.

Most of the acoustic instruments appear, at least to me, to be the same as those on the M3/M50 line. Which means while the strings are nice the Guitars are not to my taste. Brass and wood winds are a little better. Nothing near what I have with the Tyros.

Synths and Pads are a strong suite. I like them a lot.

I also like the overall sound of the keyboard. It is a very different sound world from Yamaha. It's bigger and I believe has move default reverb. I also like the Combis better than the Performances on the Motifs especially with Karma.

The Karma implementation seemed much better than on the M3. I played through a number of Combis and with Karma you could have a number of interesting variations to accompany your playing. Some you could use as an intro and others as an ending. It was a lot of fun and easy to do. Plus with Korg you can turn Karma on/off as well as the Arps and the Drum track. So that was nice.

In the end this is the workstation I would like buy to compliment my Tyros because of that completely different sound world and Karma. However it is expensive: $2995. I am sure it could be had for somewhat less but still a lot higher than a Motif XF6, which would be my 2nd choice, or even a MOX6 at around $1k. So I may end up with Yamaha because of the cost.

Hi Joesax,

I actually just purchased the Kronos (from Frank of course). I've paired it with the Motif XF and they really complement each other. The Kronos is very inspirational with Karma and the combis. I'm finding it a pain to program. I'm trying to match the Motif's programs that I use all the time and it's slow going.

The piano's, keyboard sounds, CX3 are wonderful. I'm actually quite surprised at the Orchestra and other acoustic sounds on the Kronos. You do get used to the Tyros articulations, however.