Here is my follow up on the E-A7......

When I started thinking about buying an E-A7, I thought it
was primarily a European/Eastern keyboard, thus wasting
control surface space and paging through tones, and styles
I would not need as a USA player...

But Roland handled this nicely, you select the language / country,
and the tones and styles are organized, so the content covers the
language selected...first..

I thought the keyboard scale function would be useless, it doubles
as the phrase/pad controls..

You will be able to play the E-A7 and never know it can be an Eastern
keyboard...for us Western players..

The keys are definately better than the BK5, they have more dept,
resistance, and more playable..

Now about the sounds..
I spent time comparing in detail the E-A7 to Roland's best (G70)..
I believe the sample pcm waves are the same...I guess the digital
converters could be better in the G70 (old argument when we compared
the E60 with the G70)..
The sound of the E-A7 are better than the E50/60...Similar to the E80..

I compared my favorite G70 tones and other common tones with the
E-A7 offerings....they are identical, ..
The E-A7 tones have been changed via multi effects..For example most of the
organs are using a leslie effect controlled by the bender..

The styles are excellent, best to date...and the realtime mixer makes it easy
to get the style to sound ..your way..
I also really like the way the phrase player is in sync with the style..
muting style parts and let the phrase play (pads)..is interesting.
This is also available to use with SMF play...adding 4 markers with the pads
and you can perform in a way to make it your own..

The file utility is great, helps you organize files in your external and
internal storage.
I have over 40,000 files on my 32g micro usb drive, including 2,000
custom /library styles..

Search feature makes it easy to locate a request song..

I also have songs to use in chain play..25 tunes for senior gigs..
about 7 or 8 sets..

Roland is still the only one that reads chords in SMF, without embedding..

The lyric window is great, with a zoom to enlarge words, also
showing the chords, even a measure ahead of the change...makes
playing with a file a breeze..

You have a favorite tone section for immediate selection..the tone incorporates
the Multi effects..
There is also a User tone section and user drum section...
Sampling can also be stored as a user tone or user drums.

EQ is available for every part, song, style and realtime parts..
Compression and EQ is available in the mastering (overall output)...

I really like this keyboard, much better than I anticipated..

The German review that mentioned the E-A7 is a poor man's PA4X.....
wasn't far from the truth...at 1/3 the cost...

After a few days I can get around on it with no "oops"..I did install OS 1.10..

This keyboard can serve as a primary for any gig..

The mic/effects works great with plenty of gain..

There also is a 1/8 inch stereo input for any source .tablet etc.

There are seven assign buttons, and 100 user program locations.
Additional banks can be loaded instantly...so 100 limit is not a factor.

Thanks for your review! However, I was wondering if you or anyone else knows how the E-A7 compares with the BK-7m and BK-9 soundwise.

Thanks for your comments.

The E-A7 sounds better than the bk5 for the most part..The bk5 had some nice srx tones.I had one for a couple years..The bk7m is basically the same..as bk5.
My guess the bk9 sounds best,with super natural selection...but I would bet, not by much..

Great! Thanks for your reply!

The problem with Roland sound is you either love it or hate it.... If you love the Roland sound, you should never leave the path of Roland..

But there has allways been a lot of discussion about Rolamds soundquallity being a little bit unnaturall... Personally i dont hear it, and like the sound quite well...