Fantom Xa

[SHP]

has any of you tried this new one from roland ? i've been looking for a synth to buy for about a month (it will be my first one, as i've only had midi keyboards until now) i've checked out the triton (weak piano and weak key action, also too "trance & hiphop" for me, not really a live synth i guess) the roland rs-70 (kinda "empty" sounds), and a couple of others, and was going to give the motif6 a shot, when i sat down to a fantom x6 in the roland store just for fun, and was totally blown away. i went back to try the Xa, which seems to be totally cool. it's basically a simplified fantom x6 (no color display, 1 expansiaon port instead of 4, no aftertouch, less sounds, but much cheaper). it's actually still too much for me to digest, but i'm in total awe about it :)
so any opinions ?

[Drusillus]

Hey SHP,

There's been a lot of discussion about the Xa over at Fantomized: http://www.fantomized.info/

In my opinion, the price difference is so small (~$500) that I think you'd be better off waiting until you could afford the X6 instead of an Xa. I own a Fantom-S, and believe me the large screen is way better than the one you'd get on the Xa. The X6 also has a better sound set than the Xa - The X6's "UltimateGrand" is the best piano sound I've played from a ROM, and you don't get that on the Xa (apparently the Xa has the same sound set as the Fantom-S). But the biggest thing for me is the lack of expansion slots -- 1 slot kinda sucks, considering the awesome quality of the SRX expansion cards.

But I can say in general that all the Fantom-S/X/Xa synths are awesome machines.

[dav]

hey shp I had your same doubt but...guess what?
I live in a town where good machines arrive 1 year after they're launched,if they arrive...so: no doubt! I'll go for the LE :lol:

[SHP]

Hey SHP,
There's been a lot of discussion about the Xa over at Fantomized: http://www.fantomized.info/
In my opinion, the price difference is so small (~$500)

i've read those topics, but somehow it was not easy for me to understand how people can not love this synth :) so i thought i'd ask the JR forumers.
regarding the price: i've read the "$500 argument" over there too. but in hungary the x6 costs HUF550.000 that's some $2850 and the xa's price is HUF350.000=$1850. so the difference is around $1000. what's even more interesting is that according to bananas.com here the xa costs as much as the x6 in the usa (and i'm not going into details about average wages in hungary compared to the usa...)

[Drusillus]

Yeah if the difference in price is that much for you then yeah, that's a slightly different story. The Xa does seem like a lot better buy in Hungary :)

Yeah don't get me wrong, I think the Xa looks like a great synth too, but the way I look at it is (in the US) for $500 more, you can get 3 more expansion slots (192 Megs more ROM!), a full size COLOR screen, real drum pads, and a better built-in wave ROM.

[ToneFusion]

I just bought the Fantom S88 and it's on it's way. I was originally going to get a Korg although it was going to take a lot longer ($$). I then started listening to the Fantom S/X keyboards and needless to say they sound beautiful. I then checked out the SRX expansion cards and at that point I was sold. Got the Fantom S88 new for under $2000 US....compared to a Triton Extreme with 61 Keys for the same price. I play a lot of Piano so the weighted 88 keys were a must. Anyway, the Fantom series with all that come with them...sounds, pads, expansion cards...basically made me a Roland Fantom owner. I think the Xa will make you happy! :)