With the Yamaha your’re getting updated operating system based on Genos. Plus...color touch screen. Sound engine seems to be improved as well. The Roland is a deep keyboard and somewhat complex. The biggest decision is probably based on whether you like Roland styles versus Yamaha styles.

Like you say...Roland EA7 is 5 years old and Roland has seemingly backed away from introducing any updated arranger keyboards.

Good Luck

Yep, it’s all about the styles and overall sound. Yamaha are unlikely to update the SX700 significantly, so you are basically in the same boat in both arrangers.

If it’s your first pro arranger, and intend to stay with the genre for a significant time, maybe Yamaha may be the better choice as you have an upward or forward path over the next few years, although a used BK-9 could be a nice way to step up from the EA7 without learning a brand new OS. But they’re getting hard to find, and don’t have multipads or a sampler if you use them a lot...

About the one thing I’d definitely give the edge to Roland’s EA7 for is if you are from the Far East or Middle East or other non-Western areas. The EA7 is chock a block full of ethnic sounds and styles from all over the world and set up well for non-Western tunings.

With all the hype on SZ about E a7, I have been tempted to buy one. I think it might some things that are desirable. My Sx900 Yamaha has many, many things that are desirable. But that is only my opinion.

Start here:
Step back, what are your needs???? How will you use it? What type of music will you be playing? Price is always a dciding factor-- what do I have to spend???
John C.

I stopped at Guitar Center to buy a pair of small powered speakers for my Sx900. The salesman, my friend, said that the Sx900 had great speakers, one of the best.
John C.

The SX900 speakers are excellent. The SX700 has a different system but I believe still pretty good.

Whilst I'm not a huge style user the ones I've tried so far have all been fine.

Ultimately you really need to try both keyboards and see which best matches your needs.

I now have the SX900 (replacing Tyros 3) rather than the SX700 because I needed the sub outputs and external video, the sound quality on both is excellent.

Yes, this would be ideal. I recently had the same dilemma with some guitars I was interested in. I purchased three guitars from the store with the understanding I would just end up with one and return the other two. Maybe you could make such an arrangement with a shop?

Good luck!

They are both toys for beginners, get a KORG PA1000 and that will cover everything for you up to a pro level, that's a few hundred bucks extra and aftertouch and touch screen.

So what was the guitar you bought? I love guitars.

The are both in the same league of the PA1000. So this too is a toy for beginners (according to your reasoning, I do not agree with).

The truth is that if you blindly listen to a Sx700 and a Genos you cannot probably tell the difference. Let alone the casual listeners that do not even know what an arranger is and what are the companies that manufacture them.

What everybody for sure can tell the difference is when a pro plays a 20 years old keyboard and a beginner plays a, let's say, Genos.

Everybody will tell you that the 20 years old arranger sounds MUCH better!! Because it is the player that makes the difference. Never the tool.

I got a Lucero nylon acoustic electric. I compared to an Ovation, Ibanez and Yamaha, and to my surprise, I liked the feel and sound of the Lucero best. I’d never heard of this brand before! Probably my new guitar would not impress a guitar connoisseur such as yourself, but I’m happy with it. I can see how the guitar search could never end though. I’m already have eye on a steel string acoustic-electric.