The Integra-7 as a modeling tone generator (the supernatural side of it) seems to be a complementary and not redundant piece of hardware. This is where the Jupiter 80 comes in - although I thought even with expansion on the J80 - the Integra 7 was more "decked out" than a Jupiter 80. I'm not a Roland user so none of this is from experience. It may be worth it to scale down the number of pieces to carry and just go with the Jupiter.

The A-88 should be matched fairly well with the Montage 8. You didn't say which Montage you were getting but I assume the 8. I'm sure you looked up the weight and are fine with that specification. Also, unless you use d-beam to any extent - I think the ribbon controller is going to be more useful in the long run. The control surface is more extensive in Montage vs. what you were using before - so this should be an upgrade overall. The keybed feel of the Montage8 is great. I tried it vs. other offerings from Korg and Roland and really prefer where Yamaha sits in terms of how much resistance there is on the key and the key's recovery time (how fast I could play a single repeated note).

Jeff wrote:
Hoping I've done the right thing in replacing my Roland Integra-7 and A-88 combination in my live rig with the Montage.

I used to take a Nord Piano 2 + Roland Integra plus a self-built midi control computer to gigs. I went for the Montage alone to replace the pair. Just because it is one piece instead of 2+ with quite some cabling in between. It is so much faster to set up, less things to carry along. And setting up all the performances for the various songs is so easy because of the nice UI of the Montage. I absolutely do not see any reason to go back! And no plan to use the Roland along the Montage. So far I did not find a single sound which I could not replace by one from the Montage in equal or - in most cases - better quality. So don't worry...

Funny thing is I got the Jupiter 80 to replace the A-88/Integra-7 combo to cut down on my carry and set up, but ended up using them alongside each other anyway!

The Montage arrived just over 5 hours ago and I've just stopped to draw breath,

This thing's a blast!

Only disappointment so far is the low volume of the headphone amp.

Pleasantly surprised with how relatively small and light this thing is.

Had a Motif ES6 and a Motif XS6 years ago and this is far more compact than I remember either of those being.

Well done Yamaha for helping to preserve my ageing back! 😉

Jeff wrote:

The Montage arrived just over 5 hours ago and I've just stopped to draw breath,

This thing's a blast!

Only disappointment so far is the low volume of the headphone amp.

Yes, the headphone amp is not really loud enough. But you can give it a boost: Utility -> Settings -> Audio I/O -> Output -> Main L&R allows you to raise the output of the main output. It also affects the headphones... But if you blast your ears away, don't mention that I told you :-).

This is related since mains and headphones are tied together in terms of volume. I had used a direct box tied to Main L for the first gigs on Montage. Various people were running sound, so I did not always get the same kind of feedback regarding the level. Not until this weekend's gig did I get any feedback (mostly because the sound engineer never compensated for the Montage's output level - so I couldn't hear the board in the mix - so I could hear - or "not hear" for myself). I saw the gain on the mixer which was pegged very high with little headroom - after I finally was able to get the level right in the 3rd set. On my side, I had the volume at 75% - which is hotter than where I normally like to put it.

I did know about the boost option - and mentioned to the sound engineer next time I'll boost the signal and see how that affects the gain.

"Main"ly what I'm getting at is that boosting the level may be a good general thing to do not only for headphones - but for all downstream connections.

In the studio, my non-boosted signal I have routed Main L&R to monitors which are set at about 1-o'clock which seems fine so I do not boost here.