So, best bang for you buck?
Where do you get most out of the hardware for little or fair amount of money?
Is it some 300-500€ analog synth or maybe 4 parts multitimbral nord lead a1 rack for 1200€? Or mabe used An1x?

What you guys think? Where the features and sound meet the price tag so that you have hard time to resist?

Blofeld. Not even sure there's a close second if you want high quality sound, multitimbrality, polyphony, and low cost. You might find something used, but you'll give up a lot in the process.

Wow thats a bold vote. I read they have firmware issues... Have they been resolved?

I think the JD-Xi is the best value synth. It's damn hard to beat for features/cost, and it sounds great.

MicroKorg. Can be had for as little as $200 on the used market and sounds better than some synths at 3x the price.

Yeah, for me the UI is a big turn off. But sound is hard to beat for that money!

Bass Station 2

Roland JD-Xi & Korg Minilogue are coming easily in my mind.

Come on! Tell us why?
Why not minibrute or microbrute?

Casio XW-P1. Tons of usable features at a very reasonable price and can sound surprisingly good (and surprisingly evil too). I recommend the editor software, either the PC or iPad version as it will save you from the insanity of the UI. Features for dollars there's little else left in the arena.

Novation Bass Station II - Great monosynth for the money, can sound as good as something 5x more expensive.
Mutable Instruments Ambika - One of the most wonderful sounding synth I've ever played. Payed the same as on the BS2 in my local currency. Best deal I've ever made.
Korg Volca Sample - Cheap and very fun to use "does it all inside a tiny box" package.

First and second generation VAs are probably the best value out there, if you can get one that's been well-cared for. Back in the day, I used to fantasize about having a huge keyboard stand filled with a JP8000, AN1X, Nord Lead, MS2000, and have an Access Virus B or C alongside it. Now, you can pretty much have that entire setup for just over $2000. And it would be awesome.

While you're at it, throw in a Supernova. Why not?

for the vast amount of bass and lead duties it can do and sound good at it, i.e. doesn't matter if your making house, techno, electro funk, 80's Boogie or whatever it does the job well, it's my go to for bass, I will never ever sell it, as for the Minibrute it left my studio after a few months, seemed really limited for what I wanted from a mono and I wasn't in awe of it's sound, It didn't gel with me...The Bass Station 2 still suprises me and haven't ever tired of it's timbres/sound.

Surely "value" is very, very subjective. It's no good getting a synth that doesn't fit your workflow, or the sound you want to make, even if it's the bargain of the century. That said, I'll give my personal answer...

For me, the Minibrute has proven to be ace. On paper it's not the best, and it's no all-rounder, but it's great at weird sounds and thin arps that somehow sound brilliant when mixed with my other synths. I used it and the MS20 to do an album 3 years ago, and it worked really well. I use a lot of simple arps, at least when improvising, so it's great. The build quality of the keyboard sucks (two keys popped up when it was stored in the original packaging, and handled very carefully!), which does put a major downer on it, but if it was built better it would be wonderful.

Another great buy for me has been the Streichfett, because it suits my playing style (lots of chords, played ponderously!), but I wouldn't try to argue it was the best value synth for anyone else, as it's so specialised. It has inspired many pieces, because it sounds great and so different, and I love the way you can set it to modulate its own timbre knob, and therefore get it to change octave and sound as you play, forcing you to play both with and against it - a really creative experience! For £180, it's a great buy.

That's really interesting. I have both, and I find the BSII a bit too clean-sounding, and I turn to the Brute a lot more, mainly for arps and weird sounds, and I find while it doesn't sound amazing on its own, it blends really well into my mixes. It's not as if I do grungy music, either - I never overdrive the Brute's filter, so it isn't that.

I have other synths for bass anyway (Minitaur and MS20), so I've never really found a big use for the BSII, except as sequencer, but I really want to like it!

Dreadbox Erebus... bought mine for like $425 when they were on sale last year, but even at the $540 they appear to be now I think they're a great value. It might be simple but the sound and build quality is amazing for the price.

I would vote an true underdog in the synth world: Akai Miniak.

The build quality is better than the microns (even though you may still have the scratchy pot problem (cheap fix though). Sounds awesome and (with the ctrlr panel on pc) is painless to edit. stereo ins / outs/ full size midi / vocoder / tons of filter options / etc..

I bought a Yamaha EX7 for £119 and it's one of the deepest, most magical digital synths I've ever played.

Nope, but by and large you can work around the issues. If you use it as a basic machine and don't tax it you'll be fine. Even the super expensive synths out there have known firmware or hardware issues (002, Solaris, Tempest, Prophet 12, etc. etc.)

So when you're in "bang for buck" land you're not getting awesome across the baord, you're getting awesome for price. In the $500 range I'm not sure what even comes close. Sure, a used Radias, Pulse 2, Nova, Virus A, etc. all have their advantages as well, but you lose something in all those cases (not to mention reliability concerns with a couple of them). AN1x sounds fab but the interface is clunky as hell.

Minilogue, BS2, Tetra, etc. are also potentially interesting but you lose polyphony and often multitimbrality.

New? Waldorf Blofeld without a doubt. Ultranova maybe a close second given its features, keyboard, vocoder and audio interface.

Also the Analog Four desktop is still great value: 4 excelent mono synths (lots of modulation, 2 filters) and a sequencer for 1,250.

Then probably the Minilogue.

Virus C

Does it have to be a newer synth? In case newer, Waldorf Blofeld is very low in price, but polyphony is not impressive. The monster among old synths, still sounds new, would for a low price be Yamaha CS6R or Motif ES Rack. Yamaha AN1x can be found cheap, like 400 USD I think, but there you only have two parts multitimbrality. I would go for either Access Virus before TI, because they can cost below 500 USD sometimes, or Yamaha.

I can not believe I am saying this but the JDXI. The thing is a powerhouse and walks all over a microkorg in every aspect sound wise. The analog synth is very capable and the drum sounds are decent. I really wish I had something like this available when I was first starting out.

1. Roland JDXi
2. Blofeld
3. Yamaha Reface

Second Hand:
1. Roland JV/XV Series
2. Access Virus B/C Rack (XL)
3. Novation A-Station

I'd say Massive but it's not hardware and I don't own Maschine.

1. Microkorg
2. Micron/Miniak
3. Monotribe
4. DW8000: $200 and sounds better than anything else in its price range IMO and I own or have owned almost all the knobless analogs or hybrids though I would love to try an SQ-80. And a DSS-1.

I would love a JD-Xi though.

Everybody's "bang" is different and I didn't read all the responses but I think an old-ish workstation would cover more bases than anything else. That's a lot of bang.

If you want newer, the Casio XW-G1.

Monomachine, Blofeld, Miniak/Ion, Evolver

Alesis Ion
Yamaha AN1x
Blofeld

Analogue? Used Mopho or Tetra...Korg Poly800/DW8000...Oberheim Matrix 1000....if you get good deals...

It may not be a synth, but I consistently get maximum value out of any type of sampler. Software or hardware, samplers consistently bring the good for low, low $$.

Volca Sample is fun, cheap and versatile.

Dw8000s seem to creeping up in the 350 to 400 range.. Still a good deal.