Roland RD700 88-Key Expandable Keyboard

Feature:
This is a stage piano and part-time synth. No more, no less. The rhythm kits are nice, but some other Roland and Yamaha keyboards have better accompaniment features for those that like to jam along with their keyboard. No sequencer ... didn't want one. No sampler ... didn't want one. Extra independent outputs would be a great addition.

Quality:
Good. My power cord seems to fit a bit loosely, but it's never fallen out. That said, my keyboard never moves ... The bottom of the keyboard is particle board. Not a problem for me, but it's pretty heavy and I would expect it to be a bit more sensitive to humidity changes.

Value:
I bought mine about a year ago. I haven't seen much volatility in the price. (Actually, it's gone up by a few dollars). This is still a great value for the money.

Desirability:
One of the more gorgeous keyboards out there, IMO.

Sound:
Excellent bread-and-butter sounds. Even better with the SRX expansion boards, but they're a bit too pricey. Certainly not the best sounds on the market; but, for my money, the best balance of sounds and action I could find. I prefer the Roland piano sounds to those of Yamaha and Korg. Kurzweil has some fantastic piano sounds ... but also has some incredible horror stories aobut support. GEM is also really nice. Yamaha's Motif has some nice articulations on some of their sound set that the Roland is sadly lacking (double-tonguing flutes, slaps and slides on acoustic bass, etc).

Support:
Not the best ... not the worst. Your mileage may vary.

Overall:
The best bang for the buck out there if you don't need a sampler or sequencer.

Feature:
tonewheel organ simulator is great. use sliders as drawbars. level sliders, assignable knobs, EQ knobs, control of effects right where you need it. best weighted kybd action ever - balanced like a real piano. it needs: a data entry wheel, slider or knob for live parameter changes instead of using increment buttons - ability to edit & store single sounds instead of just multisound setups - another set of assignable stereo outputs - more than 1 effect besides chorus & reverb (the effects are awesome) per setup - more SRX expansion, like 4 or 6 instead of 2. all of this would make it perfect.

Quality:
i've dropped mine several times - it's solid as a rock.

Value:
totally professional sound out of just 1 keyboard. decent control features.

Desirability:
i've convinced a few of my friends to get them already... it's nice looking.

Sound:
high quality sounds. best meat & potatoes unit for gigging keyboardist ever made. it covers needed sounds & lots of styles w/ very low cheese factor. i've used it live, on recording sessions & for multitibral MIDI stuff w/ no problems. it does what you need it to do. tweaking factory patches yields the best results. i sometimes wish Roland would concentrate more on quality than quantity....

Support:
the roland guys on the phone are nice, but they usually can't help me because i knnow more about their stuff than they do.

Overall:
i hope Roland makes an RD-800 w/ the features described above. i would definitely buy that. i already have another one of these in my closet new in the box just in case...