Browsing CraigsList last night, I spotted an AKAI S950 for $100. The ad had only been up for 12 minutes. Immediately sent a message that I'd take it. Seller just got back to me this morning saying it was a typo. The unit is actually $1000.

Ouch.

That blows. Yeah, I'm sure it was a typo. <and my eyes aren't rolling around in their sockets>

I've given up on finding a cheap S950 for the most part. My consolation prizes are an S900 with drum trigger board and (recently) an 8MB S1000 with SCSI and digital IO boards. I figure that combo replicates everything I wanted an S950 for in the first place -- 12-bit crunch and timestretch, with some unexpected bonuses (drum triggers from modular, better SCSI, bigger screen and better UI).

Makes me thankful I had the foresight to grab a couple of S-612 and MD-280s when no one wanted or cared about them.

My first thought as well. He probably got 25 responses and went and looked up what they actually go for. Had he responded to me right away I might have gotten it! ?

$1000? Wow. That's crazy.

I got mine for $200 (Craigslist, Brooklyn) maybe 6 years ago? I think I sold it for like $400 and felt bad about it.

For whatever it's worth the S-900 Impulse Responses from "Past to Future" are good enough that I am unlikely to ever bore myself to tears spending the time sampling in and out of vintage samplers

Some of us like to make ads like that when we're feeling a bit bored.

On my Craigslist if you posted an ad like that you’d get two people:

1. Someone offering $30
2. Someone with a load of butthurt telling you how worthless it was and that you should just throw it away.

Wow, I had this thing back in the 90's, fun for the time but the tiny sample time was of course frustrating. Honestly can't understand why anyone would want one in 2020, other than nostalgia and some perverse notion that you need it to make retro music. I think I bought it for $75 and sold it for $200.

Monsters, the lot of ya.

I bought three S950s in the last two decades. One 20 years ago, one 10 years ago, and one 2 years ago. Never paid more than 100$ for any of them.

The one I bought two years ago from a local add was the most complete with maximum RAM and the rare IB-109 SCSI/optical digital in board

All of them are updated with modern displays, floppy emulators & SCSI2SD. Paid more for the updates than for the samplers

Maybe people are trying to make those time-stretched Speed Garage (ugh) vocals again?

Because they sound great.
I also own an S612 that I've had since 1985.
Maybe you can tell me why I shouldn't use that either?

...or the fact that I thought it was $100?

I've run into ads like that though sometimes I see numbers added in and I can't tell which one is the typo, leaving me feel like a contestant on The Price is Right.

Hah yeah.. Found an EPS16+ here in town a few months ago on OfferUp that was $250. Wrote the guy right away told him Id take it and let me know where to meet him.. Guy ghosted me for like 4 days after, finally responds to one of my 'Hey just checking if you still wanted money or not?' emails and says its actually his friends and apparently they saw them on eBay right after and raised the price to $400. Told him 'with those specs' forget it and paid the same amount of money and bought 1000x the sampler and got a loaded E6400 Ultra to replace my E5000 instead heh.

There was a 16+ Rack on Muffs yesterday for around $600, which is about as good as it gets anymore. I almost bought it. It may even still be there.

(No affiliation)

I know they've gone up but thats crazy talk.

I saw that posting, and it was for $400. That's a lot of price inflation between your eyes and your memory.
OTOH it sold within hours.

FWIW there is not a lot of point in doing an entire track in a classic era sampler, so it's not so much the 'specs' that matter but the sound quality and character. If you want something tough and gritty, the ESP16+ would run circles around an E4 series. I would much rather have the ensoniq effects than the emu filters. I like the e4s to, but the idea that the 'specs' matter when you're just making parts and recording them to a computer or modern mpc or whatever is beside the point. For that matter, an ASR10 today doesn't have much more value really then an eps16+ unless you're insisting on doing a whole track in it for anachronistic pleasures.

So what is a fair price for an S950? Obviously $100 is a great deal and seriously undervalued considering the quality of other gear you can get for $100. No need to complain about not getting a steal. But a thousand dollars? Does seem like a lot, but again it's a unique style that's been fetishized and what all is there for $1000 new that is comparable?

Don't loose hope guys deals are still out there.

A few weeks ago I scored a Z4 with the the 8-out's installed on CL in great condition for $200.

I sold a fully updated 950 last year for $650. Probably was worth a little more but who has time to wait for that. Anyway, start there and work down depending on what it has/needs.

I had an s950 new back in the day, I've had an s900 I got for dirt cheap a few years back on CL when nobody wanted. Honestly, the price difference between the s950 and s900 really doesn't justify it. That said, there's a pretty bad ass plug in that emulates the sound, it's pretty great actually if you're in the box and want that Akai 12 bit punch.

Or worse: randomer with no intention of buying going "noo those are worth way more than that!" Completely ruining the fun of getting an unexpected bargain.

Maybe Im confused on what you mean by 'making parts' and 'doing a whole track' but how else would you use one if you're not using it to play instruments/tracks?

Not counting the sequencer, unless its drums, my E6400 does more work than the MPC in any of my projects. I do make 'whole tracks' with it, and I kinda need a bit more than a max of 1MB of memory (2 whole MB if you can find an expanded one!!), and only a floppy drive, to make it work. It worked out better anyways. I was going to use the EPS as another voice in the mix, figured 1 or 2 tracks I could get out of it each song. Instead of adding another piece of gear I really didn't have room for, I actually swapped one out with an upgrade that could do double the workload. And its got a way cooler LCD screen than the cheaper 5000 does hah.


STOP BUYING ALL THE Z's and MPC4000s!!!

A 4 came up on Reverb the other day for like $300 (I think it was $300) Im so tempted but I just bought the new Mac mini...

What is this plugin?I'm interested.Are you referring to the Mathieu Demange RX950 ?

Ok I will stop now..


kinda want a 60/2 but prices right now

that's the one. It's pretty good for ITB.

That RX950 plugin is like slapping a bit crusher on a track. Static. It can't mimic the sound you get when playing a sample chromatically, with the clock noise changing on each note when transposed.

It has to be done at the instrument level, like in TAL Sampler.

A few things about that :

1. If $600 is a "good" deal on a run of the mill digital sampler from the 90's, then that's mental.

2. Muffs is never going to be the place to get a good deal on anything. Sellers think they can charge top dollar for anything there. You'll do a lot better local, on reverb or ebay.

Personally the old school sampler workflow is where I draw the line of the vintage gear fondness. Too little to gain soundwise vs the massive PIA.

I thought I'd scored a jup 8 for 5 bucks, turns out it was a fridge magnet

$100 in shipping!

Who has time for this shit? It's an obsolete fossil that detracts from creativity.