On that list you provided I've got hands on with:

Roland XP-60 (loved the action on that one.., I used to own it)
Roland E-60
Korg PA-50
M-Audio Keystation

I haven't played the S-970 yet, but I'm going to assume it has the same keys as its predecessor.., I've played that one.

I think every board I listed is better than the MZX's keys (yes.., even the M-Audio Keystation).

**Important** If you get your hands on an MZX-500 to test out.., make sure you get to play one that's "broken in". Out of the box, or a unit that hasn't had much play will feel completely different than one that has been played regularly. The action over time will become very clanky, the keys will rattle with light taps, the noisy keys will be very obvious when playing fast runs. I won't even attempt a palm slide for organs or synth bass because I worry about the keys holding up.

I thnik squeek answered the keybed quallity quite well, i played the mzx right after plying an ea7, i didnt like the ea7 action much, but the mzx was far worse/// cluncky at best... i do however like the casio weighted hammer action(and keyfeel)

So what did i mean when i said the yamaha awm2 has 6 layers of multisamples? Just like it reads, a yamaha sound can have 8 different samples on a key.. all these samples could sound at once, but they can also be divided over the velocity range or trigg\ered \by special comditions, like legate key-off or when a switch is active...

Korgs system is even more advanced, where you can assigne up to 18 oscilators to a single note, where an oscialtor is a multisample... the engine also has much more ways to influence the note triggering.. however where the yamaha samples are stereo, the korg samples are mono...

The mzx normal sounds consist outof a single multisample... only exception are the -iano sounds... with hexlayering you can layer up to 6 sounds



In the end, the korg engine is the most advanced

The EA-7 has your typical synth action and the keys are slightly shorter. Having said that, I see no quality control problems at all such as Squeak is describing with the Casio.

I was not very impressed with E-A7 keys. Actually, I was quite disapointed with them, maybe my expectations were not realistic. But I did not like it. I actually think M-Audio controler is better, but indeed noisy and springy... But at least they have a deeper range and the size is about standard.

Anyway, I will try to get to try the X500 in a short while. They had one in a shop close to where I'll be in two weeks time. And hopefully, they will have more keyboards displayed, so I can compare.

Of course it is a matter of taste and preferance to a point, so subjective. But I also liked a lot the action on XP60... Long time ago.

Thanks for explanation on samples. Yes, I knew this, it makes sense. Korg it seems to indeed the most advanced engine, but the fact it makes available for user to go very very deeply in editing makes the whole difference. In here, because the entertainers use a lot of speicfic samples, the Korg is brand of choice by far.

My point was that the EA-7 has no quality control issues with the keybed and the Casio apparently does. I agree that no one will confuse the EA-7 keybed with the G70.