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Or at least that's what I told myself when I sold my left kidney to pay for it.

Extremely usable sounds, especially acoustic and electric pianos (and synth sounds). Organs are passable. Weight is about 55 lbs though!

Great all-in-one digital synth and controller from the '90s. Unfortunately, keyboard was prone to breaking which makes it hard to find one in good condition today.

I bought this in 2018. Was introduced to the DX7 by music teacher in junior high and played the DX7IID in my high school music lab. The sounds were pretty cutting and unique back then and I remember being impressed by it. If you find the treasure trove of online patches (or better yet, can tweak your own), this board can look and sound quite current. Plus, it ruled the '80s.

My dad picked this up in 1979 and it made its way to me eventually. This is the original cheesy-beat machine and the LCD display actually doubles as a working calculator!

Still have this from when I was a kid. Cool organ-like synthesizer (where you can stack harmonics) and of course the famous 8-bit sampler.

My first real synth (owned since 1985). Decent synth basses and pads. No built-in effects, so unit really comes alive when external effects are added. For the time, great bang for the buck. Still true today, as they can be had for cheap.

Great bass and lead monosynth. Can sound dirty too, which is hard to get from newer gear.

This box sounds amazing and an entire record could be produced on it. Bought it for the drum machine and DX7 patch compatibility, but the tweakability of the synth makes this full of fun surprises. Resonant filter, distortion, and motion sequencer take the DX200 to places the DX7 could never go.

Great, compact controller. Love the slim height, and the keys are still playable. Only wish it had a customizable velocity curve.

Got tape wound strings on mine, and it sounds sweet. Intonation is good but not great.

Others have attempted to be an all-in-one PC/Mac + iOS Audio/MIDI interface, but have had limitations. This thing even acts as a standalone submixer and has a smaller footprint than an iPad Air (although one can fit on top of this unit nicely). I love that I can submix 2-3 keyboards along with sounds from multiple iPad apps in a live setting, and output different mixes to the front of house and my stage monitor/amp (if desired). All while keeping my iPad fully charged... pretty versatile way to simplify your live rig. And it sounds great!

These near-fields were appealing to me because of the digital input, but in 15 years I've used the analog XLR ins almost exclusively. I can track or mix on these DS-50s all day with minimal fatigue and mixes on them translate exceptionally well to most environments.

Noticeably better sounding and more convincing than hardware samplers/romplers. Nice that it will run in standalone mode or with any DAW (and Mainstage too). I choose this format when adding new sample libraries to my collection.