Thanx to everyone who posted up their thoughts in this thread. It really helped. I spent the last few weex reading reviews and checking stuff out online and yesterday ended up ordering a roland JV-1010 from ebay.

http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/jv1010.php

I like the sounds I heard, that it combines the 1080 and 2080, that it has a 'microkorg' style dial on the front architecture, and that there's room for an expansion card. I'll let you all know my thoughts once I actually get the box and have a chance to try it out. But I wanted to give props to the fam for giving their input (esp. carts and phem for alerting me to the JV series).

I'll probably also look into expansion cards. The Orchestral ones look good....anyone have any experience with these things?

Thx again dudes. Stoked and chuffed.

personally i'd suggest something from the roland jv series...or get an akai rackmount s series samlper and roll your own...good sounds..even on a cheap budget

uh... yep ^^ i went w/ the roland JV series.

thx for all the input doods