Always a matter whos ears who listen and a lot about taste.

But, I noticed that T4 use more reverb and such, and PA are more dry.
In my ears T4 is a bit "colder" in sound while PA sounds a bit warmer.
A matter of taste I Guess.

All that is left when it comes to TOTL arranger comparisons these days, IMO, is style selection and quantity...

In all fairness, with skill, you can get ANY of these TOTL arrangers to sound amazing. Plus, most of them offer far more features and capabilities than you will ever use.

But style selection, range, and quality still vary radically.

Honestly, picking an arranger nowadays is much more about boiling down what you want to play to the main genres you'll want, then seeing which one covers them best, in the way you like best.

On the whole, Korg's don't have as big a library as Yamaha, but seem to do smooth jazz and funk/pop the best, and sound a bit more live. Yamaha's, OTOH, seem to do a lot more different styles, and excel at Broadway and showier, more fully fleshed out styles (where you play little but the melody).

Of course, it's more involved than that, but picking and choosing based on some lead sounds (played by a guy with no sustain pedal!) with utterly different levels of effects doesn't really show anything, particularly as each of them has a myriad of different sounds in the categories he picked. Maybe a different Yamaha piano would impress you more than the one he picked, or a different choir sample from the Korg?

I know it's getting harder and harder to find them in stores next to each other for comparison as directly as this, but anyone making a decision nowadays, really needs to look and try to listen to each of them, to get an idea of the styles' balance and selection...

This was posted months ago. In the meantime there are much better sounding videos of the PA3x and what this great arranger really can do in the right hands.

Korg has better organs and punchier drums.Yamaha wins hands down in acoustic instruments especially woodwinds and gtrs.

Yamaha 's style programming is more well mixed where Korg emphasizes in bass/drums.

Hardware/built quality/stylish appearance /compact and low footprint - korg
Smoothness in styles/better RH sounds(Dnc doesn't come close to SA )and ofcourse better 3rd party style support - Yamaha ( even though it's bulky,less compact ,not as good VH compared to Korg.

An overall opinion:
Tyros 4 sounds real good; styles and instrument sounds. They tend to be darker, more mellow – as someone said here, more like a CD.

The Korg sounds more realistic. I feel the Tyros 4 would be my choice for my home but mot for a job. The Korg being clearer and more realistic can be amplified strong and louder; which means more effective – better job sound.

IMHO, John C.

PS, I just read JG’s post; I guess he is right about who’s listening.

To me, they are just different. All the instruments are about equally good in the end, but the difference between them is very clear. Some will prefer Yamaha, some Korg, but it is absolutely just a matter of taste. Yes, Korg might be clearer in sounds, Yamaha might have more articulation, but in the end, both are fantastic. But different.

It is really about what makes you happy or inspires you. With neither you can go wrong.