"One of the all time greats, a monster synth in a new budget conscious model with great standard features."

Feature:
It has a tremendous feature set. One of the most important to me is great programmability. There are very few true synthesizers on the market, and this one is pretty easily top of the heap, especially if you are looking for a jack of all trades. Triple modular synthesis is a tad clumsy, but still allows for some monster synthesis networks. It's pretty hard to fully grok all the possibilities. The rest of the synth is good: good sound set, good I/O (digital), great SmartMedia card, SCSI port is good, decent set of built in controllers. A few downsides: no ribbon; OK but not great keyboard; only 61 keys; button layout and LCD could be better. The polyphony is also a problem if you do much with triples, or complex sequences - but admittedly, I don't bump into the limit all the often. Also, arpeggiator is cool, but no longer state of the art. The sequencer is quite good, but has a few limitations and annoyances, too. Finally, VAST is actually starting to get a little long in the tooth: there are many things it doesn't do, that serious synthesists will wish for, like lots more sample RAM, granular/wavelet synthesis, physical modelling, and wave sequencing. Kurzweil has a great foundation, they just need to take some major new steps to develop the potential, and revamp the UI. Overall, however, the pluses easily outweight the minuses. One great thing: the 2661 comes with many base features that cost a *lot* to add to the 2600 (Orch and Comtemp ROMs, 128MB sample RAM, 1.5 MB PRAM). Unfortunately, although officially released, it's still impossible to find the sample option for this thing...

Quality:
Haven't had it quite long enough to know how it will hold up, but most of it looks reasonably solid. I'm most concerned about the keybed, which sounds and feels somewhat flimsy. Most of the controllers feel fine, though the buttons are stiff to the point of being kinda unfriendly. Still, if they hold up, I'll be happy. The case itself has a satisfying, though not overwhelming heft, which is nice; it feels solid.

Value:
This thing is worth the price just for what it does. Buy this, and you'll own one great piece of synth hardware history. But, more to the point, one bad ass synth. This thing justifies its price entirely on its own merits, never mind the many higher priced boards that do less.

Desirability:
The "sex appeal" of this product is limited to those who haven't done their homework, and don't know how to program sound. Those who do know what this thing can do will want one, and drool for a decade like I did, waiting to buy a K2xxx series machine. This machine is not for the instant gratification crowd, which is one of the things I love about it, though truly, it is gratifying to use in every way. This machine stands out for being one of those killer, almost too-good-to-be-true machines, that actually made it to market. It's got a monster turbo-charged engine under the hood, but it pulls up to the stop light with a really unassuming looking exterior. Buy one a hang on for a great ride.

Sound:
A very interesting and complete set of sounds. Not all sounds are great (ex., harpsichord and electric grand are pretty bad), but in general, they are very good, and useful. I'm not one to obsess over sampled sounds but in general, it has a large useful set, and some are very inspiring. It's not really state of the art in too many way, as far as the sampled sounds go (ex., Yamaha pianos are definitely better), but it is overall a very high quality and balanced machine, sample-wise. As far as DSP goes, it doesn't have too many peers; it's darn good. Of course, if you program it poorly, it can sound bad (distortion or aliasing). But when properly set up, it sounds great. No noise, great dynamic range. One oddity: the volume sometimes seems to be a little lacking. Obviously, you can tweak signals to be hotter, but there are reasons why this isn't always a great option, and a little more headphone volume on tap would be appreciated.

Support:
Haven't had to deal with them yet.

Overall:
Even in this day of extreme software capability - and heck, I write sound software myself - this instrument is still awesome, and one of those few pieces you never, ever for a minute regret buying. You just wish you could buy a couple spares, and hand them out to all the people you know who might have enough brains to "get it." This baby is a blast. If you like sound, and really want to explore it, this is your keyboard.