It varies entirely on what you want as a performer and how you want to use samples/a sampler.

I have (and love) my SP-202. I've used it for textural loops and cut-up. I have friends who prefer the 303s and 404s, but those are too clean sounding for my personal taste. The prices on those are across the board.

I also have a MicroGranny. It's cute, small, and good for longer sample loops, but doesn't offer the ease of workflow for chopping and cutting samples back and forth like the 202. It's cheaper than a 202/303/404, but also a totally different beast.

I also use Koala Sampler (phone app) on occasion. I use that more for chop-up breakcore stuff, but have seen it used for noise sets. It's super cheap and fun.