I've read about some comparisons vs. the KN6000, but has anyone been able to compare it to the KN6500? I have the KN6500 which I was told is an upgrade to the KN6000 which had some problems.

I've got both at the moment, what do you want to know?

Do the samples, primarily the drums, sound better?
have they added new and improved styles? I know that it may be a tough question to answer because I'm sure it's a matter of taste, but I'd like to hear your opinion.
Is there anything substantial, other than the design, that would be worth an upgrade?

It is tough to answer because we will have the same arguments as always, some saying the sound is hugely improved, and some saying they can hear no difference...

The sound has improved, exacly by what means is difficult to quantify. There are now 8 live drum kits with many stereo samples, and these are improved through the sound system. There are 32 technics kits and 9 gm kits. The styles have new and reworked with more 4 and 5 accomps and minor intros and endings and using more of the new voices.

I always say listen yourself and see if you rate it. There are a couple of threads where Bill Norrie and Teemark have described their impressions in detail.

You're absolutely right. The only way judge is to hear it yourself. I hope to get a glimpse of one, sometime next week. The only problem is, it's not until I take it home and spend a few days with it, that I can truly appreciate or (hopefully not) be disappointed.
In my opinion, the Technics KN6500 is the best all around arranger keyboard so far, (not including the 7000 which I have yet to try). I like it better than the Roland VA7 which is much more difficult to use and the Yamaha PSR-9000 which I thought didn't have nearly the same sound quality. The Korg PA-80 was pretty good but a little light on the style compositions, as was the Solton X1.
However the Solton X1 had the most realistic sounding drums and guitars than any of the keyboards including the KN6500.
I hope the KN-7000 made some improvements on those 2 parts.
I'd love to hear what you think.

Well, to my ear the 6500 is easily the best Technics keyboard to this point. I've owned 6 or 7 (lost count) and each generation seems better than the previous. I've often wondered if any Technics owners have been disappointed for some reason and moved back to an earlier model? Maybe it's foolish thinking, but I generally assume that the latest model will show improvements that make it attractive enough to trade for. However, I've never bought one sight unseen or unheard.

HI

I have the upgraded 6000 to 6500, i listened to the 10 samplesongs from the 7000,some of the sounds are identical to the 6500 exept for the organs and acordians,wich are new sounds,dont know when i will be able to see the 7000 in canada, my dealer says he will let me know, sure like to check it out,what i have read so far from alec and bill ,i like, best regards to all technicguys,BENNO

I agree with a lot of Stephen's points, particularly trying it out at home. The PA80 navigation is not intuitive and that always puts me off. The X1 styles were good but the overall package did not impress (I converted all the styles for 6000), the SD1 is a lot better, and has good drive on some drums. The 9k has very flat styles in comparison, and the vocal samples are a joke, a couple of good guitars though.

There are a couple of live guitars in the 7k, the 'soloist' equivalent, I suppose, and some nice strums in some of the backings. So much is tweakable now, you can edit to your hearts content.

It is all so personal and depends on whether you prefer the more natural sound of live acoustic instruments or a more hyped up brighter 'electronic' sound with plenty of impact and dsp processing, but at the expense of naturalness.

There are 2 other things that about the KN6500 that are slightly disappointing,
1) When you change from a Major or Minor chord to a 7th the chord pattern doesn't change while on Roland and Yamaha the entire baseline and chord pattern changes to give it a little more flavor.
2) When you use the Easy Composition feature to create new styles it keeps the fill-ins from the base style which sort of makes it impossible to really create a new style because the fill-ins never quite match. It would be nice if when you changed the style parameters it would adjust the fill-in as well.
What do you guys think of these 2 things? Does the 7000 have any improvements in the Style creation?

I agree with Alec's point about all of this revolving around personal preferences, etc. Some of the reasons I've stayed with Technics include looks, ease of navigation, large screen, sounds, styles suited to my ear and tastes, and dealer support. Now, in terms of naturalness and realism in styles, I wish the Technics programmers would look closely at what Band-In-A-Box has done (version 11). I use this program a lot and really enjoy the jazz, latin, and country styles that have been designed to emulate the styles of particular artists. If you're not familiar with this program and are really into styles, take a look at it. For me, a marriage made in heaven would be a large selection of BIAB styles specifically programmed and tweaked for Technics keyboards with two additional variations available (since BIAB only provides two). I wish Technics would collaborate with Peter Gannon on this; however, I'm sure that's out of the question.