I think it's a bit of an exaggeration for anyone to say that Tyros 5 is lacklustre compared to a Genos, and I reckon those who say Genos is twice as good as T5 are talking utter nonsense! Far more credible to me is the assessment of those who say that Genos is marginally better in some respects, and openly admit that T5 is still quite a decent piece of kit. Sometimes I will get a bad day, and whatever I try to do on my T5/76 doesn’t sound right at all. I will then sit and watch a few of Peter Baartman’s video demos of T5, and will immediately be reassured that I own one of the best keyboards there is… and that any temporary misgivings are just down to my inability to get the best out of it!
During Tyros 4's reign as Yamaha's flagship keyboard, I happened to get into a very interesting discussion with a very knowledgeable person in the field of electronic keyboard instruments. He predicted that the Tyros line would soon come to an end to make way for a completely new design, and a new name. Well, we all knew that that would happen one day soon anyway, but he went further by saying that most of Tyros' innards, including many of its styles (revamped, of course) and other features, would probably be transplanted into the new machine. The main reason for that, he said, was down to the fact that top end keyboards have already reached such a high level of excellence that any major (or ground-breaking) improvements in sound quality from one model to the next is extremely difficult to achieve. Another interesting thing he said was that it's natural that folk who trade up to a newer model will want to reassure themselves that they did the right thing. In fact, they will so much want their latest purchase to be the best yet, that they will gradually convince themselves that they can actually hear vast improvements when, in reality, such imagined improvements hardly exist at all! And whatever improvements that do exist are often the result of tweaked effects and other settings. Like I said, that conversation took place way back in the days of T4. Oh, and I didn't tell you what the chap did (and still does) for a living did I? Well, he happens to be one of Yamaha's main dealers… but he obviously can't be named here.
Kind regards,
Will