I was at Oostendorp music today, with the sole reason to get a peak and a few minutes with the pa4x...

I must say, it sounded incredible, awesome sounds, espescially the drums, i got to compare it to the Kronos and the tyros 5...

Many sounds are richer then the T5, and the styles do sound incredibly live and vibrant.. The Grandpiano sound is best in an arranger ever.. The huge sample rom is audible for sure.. But when you take the SA2, organ and ensemble voices into account, i would say sounds is a draw between Tyros and Pa4x

But when i compared it to the Kronos, it somehow was less sparkling and vibrant.. I also missed the absolute cleanness of the Kronos... It might be that the Kronos has a better DAC and/or effects.. Also the synths, orchestral sounds, organs are better then the Pa4x..however, Kronos could borrow some of the pa4x guitars and drums..

Anyway, my comclusion is that indeed this pa4x is a step up from the pa3x


I also compared the Kronos to the Nord stage 2ex, Roland rd800, kawai MP7 and MOXF8... And it confirmed again to me that the Kronos is the best allaround sounding keyboard instrument.. With as only weakness wood and brass and that kind of acoustic instruments, but then thats where the Tyros5 shines brightly(also over most of the pa4x.

Good to hear about the live sound and the guitars in particular.

I wish I was at Oostendorp, too!

Thanks for your detailed review. I'm glad the sound got better than the previous model.

I have a question: I don't know if you've ever tried the PSR-S970, but in case you did, how did it compare to the Pa4x sound-wise?

If an S970 is a Tyros witouth SA2, ensemble and ORgan world sounds(which it is), i would say it follows closely behind the PA4x.. But then, these days all arrangers sound great... and one would buy a new arranger based on features, UI, and mostly budget..