all I mean is that each manufacturer has his own form of compression on preset sounds in the wave rom, and there are many tricks with multisamples and layering available making the wave rom used in a preset in no way comparable with the wave rom needed for uncompressed wave files in a sampler for example. So numbers only give a broad outline, and ears may give a totally different picture at the end of the day.

it is easy to say memory is cheap, ram may be cheap, but that is not enough on its own. If you want some kind of functionality better than an A5000, you end up with a board significantly more expensive, more Triton than KN maybe?

Actually, I find my A5000 too complicated.

You're right about them using compression techniques and such. Still, my ears are all I need to judge quality, and the KN6500 is way behind the quality you can get from a digital sampler.

Regarding functionality, I was thinking more in terms of what Steinberg has done with Halion which has a very easy user interface yet still remains a powerful software sampler. Technics could easily do something similar, where you can edit your samples over the USB interface on a PC.

GEM and both Yamaha seems both able to produce sampling-capable keyboards for about the same price as Technics, so I have to wonder if the main reason Technics doesn't want to introduce a feature like that is because they wouldn't be able to sell their expensive addon sound boards anymore. I'm reminded here of the cost of a new drive for my KN2000, which died some months ago. $250 is a ludicrous amount for something which should cost no more than $25.