i'm interested in getting a new sp as i offloaded my 303. the best thing about the 303 was the sound (well in general it kicks ass.) i'm looking at 404s for the polyphony and pads and the sx has the sd cards (kick ass.) however i'm worried the sx will lack character (like a newer mpc.) any opinions?

it's true, it does sound clean. it has lofi mode and vinyl sim but theyre not as good as the OG 404 either.

the 404 is kinda halfway between the 303 and sx.. its not as lofi but the lofi mode is good, and the vinyl sim is better than the sx mode. CF cards are hard to come by but if you ask photography enthusiasts they often have leftovers from old cameras. Make sure you get sandisk ultra/sandisk ultra II cards, theyre the only ones that seem to work reliably.. there are a few others that do.

CF card readers are easy enough to get so its just about finding the cards of the right type.

i'll probably get a og then. what size cards?

I have a 404sx and a 303. Lately I have been making my tunes with the 404, then sampling them into the 303. I love the 303's sound, but the 404sx is so much easier to work with.

when you pitch , the sound is not so clean , love it

imo you can get any sp sounding dirt nasty if you know how

did a blind test a while back with a 202, 303, 404sx in the various modes.
listen with the link below
http://otherish.com/sp/

the reveal of what's what is here...
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5682&hilit=comparison&start=15

you can decided from there if there really is much of a difference between them audio wise w/ no fx.

+1