roland xv 5080 - still a worthwhile module?

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I've been thinking about getting one. Never had a Roland device and it may be time to get it. It's being at sold at the equivalent of $530 and includes 2 expansion cards:
SR-JV80-15 Special FX Collection.
SRX-98 Analog Essentials (special SRX board 2006).

It has also been upgraded to 128MB RAM

Is it worth it? It sounds great to these years and may well fit the kind of music I make.

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I dont know what the exchange rate/premium works out to be in Denmark, but my gut feeling is that 530 sounds a bit high for this.<checks ebay>
Ok, it looks to be on the high side of average, but with the expansions that cost around 100 bucks a piece may be worth it to you. I would not mind owning a rompler like this either, but for me the entry price would have to be around 100 bucks as there is still too much interesting stuff to be had for 5-600 on my list. Your list may be completely different than mine though, so if you like it, go for it. I dont think it would be a bad module at all.

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Do you want the XV-5080 because you need all those sounds etc? Or is it more about the 90s kind of sounds it makes – because a JV-1080, 2080, even a 1010 with a decent sysex editor may represent better value to you (although I just noticed some joker has a 1010 at £220/$320 on eBay :o)

At $530 you're something like a third of the way to an Integra 7 and even closer to a low-end Fantom.

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I think the 5080 is pretty much the fantom without being able to sample directly. (Although IIRC, you can play back Roland and Akai sample format)

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I think a 5080 would be well worth the rack space it would occupy, but I would not pay that much for a 5080. On the other hand I am a miser and do not need a 5080. So what I'd be willing to pay might be unrealistically low compared to what a seller might want to charge. :)

My perceived value in Roland synths, other than useful sounds-- In my experience they are durable and tend to last a long time. So in my mind there does not seem much risk of buying a healthy unit only to have it burn up a few weeks later. Though there is always that risk even with brand-new gear. Supposedly some of the old poly analog rolands of yesteryear have some problems with worn-out chips though.

One thing I hadn't paid much attention to, but will probably start paying a little more attention regarding older gear-- Some electrolytic capacitors seem to last a long long time, but some folks say typical electrolytics might be near-shot within 15 years. Dunno.

Last year my 30 year old TX416 power supply went down. Still haven't tried to repair it yet. When I was looking online for schematics and such, there was lots of advice that the electrolytics should be replaced in the gadget. What is called "re-capping".

Maybe if I had re-capped the TX416, then the power supply wouldn't have failed. From reading, the most likely TX PS failure mode is due to dried up electrolytics. The question in my case, will be whether the bad caps took out any semiconductors or other components I'll have to replace.

Therefore have been considering maybe gradually going on a re-capping campaign for all my old stuff. Recap a device every few months til they are all regrooved. Perhaps avoid problems that might kill more expensive and hard to replace components. Or perhaps it would be more expense and trouble than it is worth, replacing caps in equipment which still continues to operate.

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Stupid American Pig wrote:I think the 5080 is pretty much the fantom without being able to sample directly. (Although IIRC, you can play back Roland and Akai sample format)
With the later Rolands I lose track of what's in what - though I was thinking of the later Fantoms with some of the Supernatural sounds from the Integra/Jupiter.

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Yeah about $1100-$1200 will buy a new FA-06 in the usa. I have one of those and would rather have the FA than a 5080 if forced to choose. The FA can do most of what a 5080 can do, and lots more besides, and is not 15 years old.

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Gamma-UT wrote:
Stupid American Pig wrote:I think the 5080 is pretty much the fantom without being able to sample directly. (Although IIRC, you can play back Roland and Akai sample format)
With the later Rolands I lose track of what's in what - though I was thinking of the later Fantoms with some of the Supernatural sounds from the Integra/Jupiter.
Well that is true, it depends on which fantom you are talking about. To me, a fantom is like the one I used to own the X8 keyboard. But later fantoms did have some nicer sounds. I bought the fantom based on my demoing it in a store for about an hour. I really liked the sounds on the showroom floor. After I got it home, I realized, I didnt quite like them as much as I thought. They were still perfectly useable but I just wasnt inspired by them.

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Gamma-UT wrote:Do you want the XV-5080 because you need all those sounds etc? Or is it more about the 90s kind of sounds it makes – because a JV-1080, 2080, even a 1010 with a decent sysex editor may represent better value to you (although I just noticed some joker has a 1010 at £220/$320 on eBay :o)
At $530 you're something like a third of the way to an Integra 7 and even closer to a low-end Fantom.
It's definetely the 90s qualities appealing to me the most. I know the JV series will deliver a similar sonic experience but they're rarely available over here 2nd hand. The 5080 was, as far as I know, the forerunner for the Integra and the latter is usually going for A LOT over here. You have to keep in mind that Denmark is a very small country and the availability is nothing like the US (or UK for that matter) - This is the first time I've seen a used 5080 for sale in my country. Buying abroad will be just as expensive due to p&p and ridicolous danish taxes.

I've been browsing around and some tend to think that the 5080 sounds better than a Fantom but I'm unable to confirm whether they're correct.
I'm well catered for in the hardware department with both a DX7, a Blofeld, a Kurzweil PC3X and a M-audio Venom. The latter will go on sale soon as I don't really use it after I got the Blofeld. I do miss the Roland 90s sound, if there's such a thing. We never seem to get any plugins based on the digital Rolands due to copyright issues, so it's hardware or nothing.

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I think it's a great little ROMpler for the price. Make sure the editor works for you though, as I found my 5050 to be a PITA to edit without it. I personally don't think the Integra 7 is worth the extra money. Not at a time when you can buy Omnisphere 2 or Falcon.
Zerocrossing Media

4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~

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K-Bee wrote: I've been browsing around and some tend to think that the 5080 sounds better than a Fantom but I'm unable to confirm whether they're correct.
I think that's got to be false as when I had my SonicCell it had the Fantom engine and it definitely didn't sound better than my 5050 that it replaced.
Zerocrossing Media

4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~

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I got it down to $407 but without the cards. With around 1100 presets already, I doubt I'd need the anyway. I can always seek them out at a later date, should I feel like it :-)

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I guess that's a matter of taste. Samples sound slightly different. Even the XV-3080 sounds different than the XV-5080. And the JV-1080 sounds different than the JV-2080.

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well for 500 bucks i would consider buying something newer. srx98 is just ok (not sure if this was a giveaway one). i did not have jv one so have no clue. i like xv series a lot but I would not buy none of them today unless the price would be insanely low. save up for second hand integra - this would be my advise.

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If you hunt around you might be able to find a JV1080 for little money. They sound inredible still and you can still load 4 of the expansion cards into them.

I found one for £80 a couple of years ago.

Whatever the reason, they sound expensive.

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