I ran across a message on the Technotes forum asking about impressions of the KN6000. Having been to several of these introductory sessions I felt compelled to reply.

My response: I do not own a 6000 but have had a limited chance to play one. I've also heard it played by Chris Halon at one of the introductory sessions.
First, to my ears, the board is an improvement over the 5000 in many of it's sounds. However it seems to still have the thin reedy sounds in brass and reeds as found in the 5000. The proof of the pudding is to play simple melodies where each instrument is featured, and listen carefully to see if the instruments sound like the real thing.

Chris's performance was more of a demonstration of his ability to program the sequencer than a broad demonstration of the capabilites of the instrument. Most of us don't have the music credentials, nor the technical knowledge that he has. Considering what I'd hoped to learn, I could have learned about as much listening to the demo built into the machine.

As reported by others the 6000 does have a chord progression delay problem when changing from one chord family to another. For example when changing from a C chord to an F chord there was, on the board I was playing, a slight delay.

The board does have many features that are improvements over the earlied board. One very nice thing is its ability to play disks from earlier machines. For example, I was able to use disks from my 2000. With some tweaking I think I could continue to use them for performances.

Keep in mind, this information and $1.00 may get you a cup of coffee at Mc Donalds.

PS. When I shared my feeling that I would have liked to have seen more of the boards capabilities shown the sales manager became very defensive and downright rude. Technics just doesn't seem to get the picture.






[This message has been edited by Richard Peck (edited 12-16-1999).]

I had an interesting experience yesterday. I went to the (only) Technics dealer in the Washington, DC area and asked to see a KN6000. The salesperson told me that she had none in stock to show me. So I asked when they were expecting some in. She told me that she didn't know, but that she would send in a query to Technics and then call me with the answer.

Very strange. I definitely had the feeling that she knew more than she was telling me. Could it be that they have suspended shipments so that they could fix the bugs? Naw, I must be in the Christmas egg nog too soon.

Larry

I too don't own the KN6000, but after all the hype was curious to try one. As it happened, the local chain happened to have one which I could play.

When I did, I was somewhat disappointed - the sounds, while realistic, sounded too cheesy to me, the keyboard felt rather flimsy (or perhaps touch sensitivity was set too high, but as soon as I touched the key, the instrument would start sounding). I have played electronic keyboards for many years now, but I can still appreciate good feel of a keyboard. The styles sounded too Bavarian (would be appropriate for an Octoberfest gig, which I don't do), and screen, while big, was showing all the same info which the smaller screen of the KN5000 was showing - unless it was designed for visually impaired people, it looks like nothing more than a gimmick designed to make us pay more.

I did not pay attention to the chord recognition problem (did not hear about it by then), but generally was not too impressed with the keyboard.

The funny part happened when I enquired about the price - the salesman said that the list is $7000 (that's in Phoenix AZ), but they'd be willing to entertain some discount if I commit to it on the spot.

As I was walking out, I could not help thinking that Technics have missed the boat with their musical instrument business.

First off, $7000.00 list? Sounds like our local Yamaha dealer where I live. I bought a KN-6000 for my wife. No hard drive. $2895.00 shipping was included.

The sensitivity of the keys aren't as drastic as stated previously, so maybe quality control sucked on unit you played.

I am an amateur, so the chord recognition problem doesn't affect me. I, personally, do not care for most of the styles, which as an amateur, I look hard at, but in the case of the 6000, bought it unheard except demos as my wife wanted a Technics, as their is no dealer in our area.

The touch and after response did not have the sensitivity of the X1, which I own, love and also bought unheard but based on user comments due to no local dealer. The instrumentation was, for the most part tinnier and had less of the instrument nuances. All this being said, my wife loves it, but the "proof in the pudding" will be a few months down the road whether the attraction will be there.

If you're shocked with a KN6000 the price of $7000.00 quoted by the Phoenix dealer, how about $9400.00 by the salesman in Tucson. At the introductory session I attended he quoted that price and told one of the people in the audience that he'd take his KN5000 in trade and for the difference of $4500.00 he could have the 6000. When the group seemed stunned the salesman did suggest the customer should talk to him privately. The regional sales manager said nothing.

What are we dealing with here?

No thank you!

Have a great holiday!

$9400.00 would seem like a fair price if it had a PSR-9000 and Solton X1 w/hard drive attached to the 6000 also with hard drive, full version of Sound Forge and Cakewalk, a mike and a partridge in a pear tree.

Can anyone tell me where I can get a good deal on the KN 6000? My local dealer (who happens to also be a Yamaha piano dealer too) told me it lists for $6,000, but he would throw in a 4 pedal foot control for free and give me the unit for $4500. After seeing the previous postings, I wonder how good of a deal this really is?

Have all the problems with this unit been worked out already?

Would anyone be able to compare the KN 6000 to the new Roland 2000? I've seen both. The roland has a 100meg zip and floppy drive built in, but the KN 6000 has a serial interface for computer link (great for notebooks), sub-woffer and more wattage on the speakers.

I was impress with the demo I saw of the kn-6000, since I will be using Cakewalk Pro software on my computer and a digital keyboard for arranging accompany music for a sax soloist.

How many different rhythms are in the KN6000?

What are all the optional features available for the KN-6000?

Since I am an amateur, I would like a very user friendly keyboard with a lot of automatic/smart features.

Thanks in advance for you help.

I was initially interested in the KN6000 since a couple years ago I near purchased a KN5000 which at the time looked pretty good. I found a good deal from Ronn Keppler at Keppler (or is it Koeppler Music) in New York State. It was about a half of what a local dealer was asking for a 5000. Try him.

As far as EM2000 - I own a G1000, which is very similar (without speakers and D-beam, but with a nicer, 76-key keyboard), and I would not recommend it. It is good if you have a fixed repertoire and want to program all the settings into the performance memories. If you are like me and want to pick styles and sounds on the spot, it is pretty confusing and very non-user-friendly.