Is a dirt cheap, tricked out E4XT or Z8 sampler worth it?

[nk_e]

Hi all,

Prices for former top of the line hardware samplers are ridiculously cheap these days. E-MU E4XTs and 6400s and Akai Z8s can be had fully tricked out for a pittance.

Questions:

1-How do these machines stack up against the likes of the mighty Halion, Kontakt, and MachFive? Much of the stuff online talks about HW samplers having superior filters or envelopes and punchiness. Is that all that can be said then? Is there any point in having a hardware sampler, or are they so outclassed by their software counterparts that it's hardly worth it even at "cheap as chips" prices?

2-Of the lot, which one is the "best" to grab? My personal definition of best means the one that still offers something unique even when considering the mighty soft samplers of today.

Thanks!

[Gravity Jim]

My first pro sampler/synth was the venerable Kurzweil K2000R. It was the source of 80% of the sounds in my productions when I started this mess 17 years ago.

I still own it. 4 years ago it still saw some regular use because I had some piano samples I really liked and some whacky percussion stuff that came in handy. Over the last two years, it has seen limited use as a metronome click. (I guess I should investigate that percussion stuff again, but I suspect that instruments for Kontakt like West Africa pretty much blow them away.)

As powerful as a K2000 was in its day, and even given its easy availability to me (I can fire it up and use it in a couple of seconds, as it is still racked up), I never use it for anything. It's a boat anchor, probably worth about 150 bucks even with the "Orchestral ROMs." I was able to find one of the last internal hard drives that its OS will address when the original drive failed a few years back, but I sure wouldn't bother if that drive died today.

So I'm going to say "hardly worth it," even cheap as free.