Hi everyone!

I accutualy own a psr-e423, a nice little keyboard for beginners and a home hobbist like me. Now I am looking to go to something more advance. I have two models in mind, the Korg PA 600 or the Roland BK-5. Since it is a few hundred miles drive for me to find a store that as both models to try and compare, if anyone that have compared these models could give a point of view mainly for keys feel, sounds, ease on use, etc, I would appreciate a lot. The PA 600 seems to offer more, but having to tweak quite a bit to get good sounds on Korg like somes are mentionning on forums, bugs me a little. On the other hand the BK-5 are more pleasing to my ears from what I heard on YouTube.

...On the other hand the BK-5 "styles" are more pleasing to my ears from what I heard on YouTube.

Where are you located?

Sherbrooke, Québec

I just did a very similar thing - had a PSR-E423 and wanted to move up, but my dilemma was bewteen the KORG Pa600 and Yamaha PSR-S750/S950. I listened to the YouTube demos and read any forum comments I could find.

I live in Dartmouth, NS across the harbour from Halifax, a nice sized city but not big enough to have two MOTL demo arrangers on the floor to hear.

One of my thoughts was that personally I probably didn't have an experienced enough ear that a side by side test would really prove much to me unless something sounded really bad and surely somone would have made a comment if that was the case.

So I ordered the Pa600 just based on forum posts. And I am beyond happy with the result. I am not advanced enough as yet to try out everything it can do - being able to learn on a nice arranger with future potential capabilities is a long term retirement goal.

Jp47,
I agree with Notebender. I owned both the Roland BK-7M and the BK-5.
I would consider either the Yamaha S750 or the Korg PA600.

Deane

Could you be more explicit, any negative things about BK-5?

I am sorry, you got it wrong. You DON'T have to tweak anything to get great sounds with Korg right from the box. Just that you have the possibility to get YOUR sounds by tweaking it. I big difference. You can choose to tweak the heck out of it, because you could. With any of the other arrangers in the same category not so much...

i had a bk 5.

to me:
the pros are nice drums , good arrangements(styles), good sounds, nice operating system (easy to figure out). sounds REALLY good thru a pa system. same usb setup as the other keyboards. nice songbook function. everything is saved and accessed on user usb (stick)drive. very light.

the cons were screen to small, monochrome color, kinda hard for me to read. the video out only puts out lyrics on a midi file, does not display what is on the screen. the category of brass and woodwinds are in one category button. couldn't figure how to seperate favorite (trumpet and sax)for immediate recall. not as good support as korg or yamaha as far as styles and stuff.

kepted the bk5 for about 5 days and sent it back. i'm looking at the pa600 because of better sounding drums and more of a live feel on stage. tthe yamaha s750 at the about the same price could also be a good choice but to me it sounds like you're playing along with a cd. the operating system is a little easier . i'm leaning toward the pa600. i really don't need either as i'm retired from the busines, but ya never know when the new keyboard bug will bite.

i have a yamaha psr 1000 with usb drive and a korg i5, i had the pa 80,60,50,roland va 5,7,76 and a tyros. i would recomend watching as many videos of these keyboards as you can.better yet try one out if you can. i did on the bk5 and still sent it back. i wish you luck.

JP47
E mail me.I am in London Ontario.
mmesanovic@hotmail.com