PSR-E473/EW425 Pricing

[SciNote]

Well, looks like these keyboards will be available soon!  I'm seeing them on the websites for Sweetwater and Sam Ash in the U.S. for pre-orders.  Both sites have the PSR-E473 for about $370, and the PSR-EW425 for about $490 USD.

The prices for these keyboards are definitely creeping up, but you really do get a lot for your money.  When I got my PSR-E433, it was about $250.  Compared to that keyboard, these new models add...

About 90 more sounds
About 100 more styles
Double the polyphony -- from 32 to 64 notes max
Dozens of DSP effects
A second channel of DSP
Super Art. Lite
Motion Sequencing
Style revoicing
Style, voice, and transpose freeze
Tunable scales
Audio input
Digital audio recording capability
Sampling capability
Reverb/Chorusing for the style
Enhanced DJ effects

Throughout all of these additions over the past decade from the E433 to the E473/EW425, we really haven't lost that much.  As far as I can tell, all that has been taken away is about 70 prerecorded songs, a stereo-wide feature, and when going from the E463/EW410 to the new keyboards, the ability to play a sampled sound on the keyboard.  Of course, the lower-quality feel of the keyboard after the E433 has been discussed before.  We'll just have to wait until we can actually play an E473/EW425 to see if Yamaha has improved the key feel.

[pjd]

Hi Bob --

Thanks for keeping us up to date.

The E473/EW425 functionality and price point is sneaking up on the MX61 synthesizer. The MX61 is selling for $770 USD street and it is based on waveforms and voices from Motif XS (2007).

Take care -- pj

[pquenin]

I'm french and the best price for the E473 is currently 379€ on the Thomann webstore. It was 425€ when it appeared on their site, with an availability announced to several months (!). Then it was 411€ when it was announced available immediatly. Then it went to 399€, and now 379€. I think its price will stabilize a little below 350€. I don't think it will go down to the current price of the E463 which is around 300€. The Casio CT-S1000v is much more expensive : 475€. The CT-S500 is 415€ and its price does not seem to want to drop for the moment. I don't know why the Casios are so expensive in Europe. I had the pleasure to play on the CT-S1000v in a store here in my city, and I was pleasantly surprised by its rather qualitative aspect (which had disappointed me a lot on the CT-S400). I really like the touch of the keyboard, it is very beautiful, compact and light, but therefore far too expensive for the moment given its limited functionality. The CT-X5000 is 379€, the CT-X3000 325€. The Korg EK-50 is also 325€, and the EK-50L 485€. I don't like the look and workflow of the Korgs but they sound great, are of excellent quality, and maybe they are the best choice?

[pjd]

Hi --

I've seen similar comments about European Casio pricing on other forums. I wish I knew how regional import tariffs, VAT and local pricing decisions affect local price. Don't know how much flexibility or control regional entities like Yamaha USA have over in-country pricing, i.e., can they make adjustments for higher import duty in order to beat competitors within their region.

Guess I shoulda work in marketing, not engineering. 

-- pj

[tyros2009]

Style, voice, and transpose freeze

This is GREAT feature as user can use registration buttons to quickly change right hand voices during live playing.
However, the price 370$ / 490$ is quite high IMHO. I bought my EW410 second hand (6 months old) for 300$.

[pquenin]

the E473 has also lost the Attack/Release control with the 2 knobs, compared with the E463 or E453

[SciNote]

the E473 has also lost the Attack/Release control with the 2 knobs, compared with the E463 or E453

Absolutely.  I did not realize this when I posted my list of features in the original post.  Certainly, I think it's a mistake to take away the attack and release functions from the knobs.  The previous versions of these keyboards did not have a panel sustain button, and I don't think this one has it either, so having a knob for release that you can easily call up allows this kind of functionality.  In fact, it's even better then a panel sustain button, because the knob allowed you to vary how much sustain (actually, release) you wanted on the fly.  And when creating new sounds, the ability to easily adjust the attack and release of the overall sound without going into the function menu was a nice feature -- this may very well be one aspect of the new keyboard that prevents me from upgrading from my E433.  But, I'm not sure -- I don't know if it's a deal-breaker or not, because at least attack and release is still available through the function menu when creating new sounds.

But I agree -- Yamaha should not have taken away this feature from the live-control knobs.

[pquenin]

The E473 is great, but is disappointing on many points.
So I bought an old E453 for 150 €, that has USB midi + audio (this is the 3rd E453 that I buy, it was the first arranger keyboard that I had, after years without a keyboard, so I have a particular attraction for this model).
My phone Samsung Galaxy A10 has no audible audio latency, so I can use it as a synth and an audio/midi recorder for the E453 with the Audio Evolution Studio app that has a very nice souding virtual synth inside (Evolution One).
I think that the panel of the E453 is the most logical compared to that of the E463 or E473.
I'm very happy with my new purchases.