I found the explanation on the KORG Forum....


"I posted the link on some Iranian keyboard player group on facebook, and some keyboardists from Iran posted more info about it. I chatted with someone who actually owns one of these.

This would not make any sense financially in the US, but apperently it makes whole lot of sense in the Middle East as used electronics don't lose their resale value all that much. Some dude in Iran has actually figured out how to do this, and has registered it as a ligit business. ha ha ha

They don't change the mainboard, but only modify it. it's done in two ways actually. You can either choose to get your PA500 run PA800 OS, or you can choose to keep your current OS, and load a hacked/modified version of it. If you load PA800 OS, then you would lose some of the features of the PA500 . Like you can no longer use the user scale buttons , becaues it would now act as a PA800 keyboard. You would also lose styles and sounds that came with it. So then, you have to load them back as foreign samples and user styles.

He said it cost about $800 US dollars to do this. So altogether he paid $1600 for this keyboard which now has a sampler and 256 mg ram. He said a lot of people who can't afford a Pa800/2x.etc... are doing this over there."
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includes the LCD screen, 250 mg Ram and labor.

If you choose to run your PA500 like a PA800 it'll cost you that much, and you must change the LCD screen. If you choose to run your PA500 with the hacked PA500 OS, then, you can save $360 by keeping the factory LCD.

I'm just quoting what he told me, and many others confirmed that. He said more and more people choose the latest second method, because it's cheaper as you dont' have to replace the LCD, and you don't lose factory sounds, styles and PA500 specific features not available in other PA series!

with either methods you can have a Pa500 with sampling capability and 250 mg ram!

Thats excellent, how did they change the colour of the casing to red???

Ide be so keen to make my Blue PA 800 Black or something!

See Larry for a can of red paint and some masking tape, make sure it's a long drying time and then you won't need to watch the match. heeeeeeee or buy a Kronos only in black ????