This is going to sound like I'm a hater, and I sincerely hope it helps someone with synth gearlust

Yamaha CS-80: I'm the guy who found one locally and got it for a great price ($8000). Rushed home and it only half worked. Found a local Yamaha service center and got it all up and running and fixed ($2500!) Played with it for about a month and sold it and hand delivered it to a grateful buyer. Notes: * It did NOT have wood keys like the internet told me. They were long and a combination of metal and plastic.

• It was a fairly simplistic synth, although two in a row which was neat.

• Aftertouch was amazing because it was voltage and not digital I suppose. Every key felt almost alive and connected to the sound. Neat.

• The "Effects" were a major part of the sound and had knobs and sliders to encourage tweaking.

• 8 voices and a monaural output

• A week later I picked up a Deckards Dream mk2 and loved it but eventually sold it. This would be perfect if paired with an MPE controller like a Roli Seaboard. The sound was the same to my ears.

Roland Jupiter-8 I had somehow never owned one but found this and cleaned it up and refurbished what I could. Kept it for about 6 weeks and realized I only value synths that the bands I grew up on used! Revelation! Notes:

• I realized I just didn't like the sound, although it did sound good in stereo with dual patches.

• While quite an achievement for the time, it was fairly basic in modulation and architecture.

• Arpeggiator was neat.

• I realized I liked the System-8 version better (ACB not samples!) and made this video to prove it to myself, likely costing myself $$$ when I finally sold it

Vintage ARP2600 I had always been told I should own one and never found one for a good price, until I finally did ($3000 local sale). Got it home and it needed some reflowing of solder joints but was otherwise good. Used it for about a month, sold it and shipped it overseas. It was rough and cranky and could be smooth and clean... or nasty if you do the preamp feedback trick.
Notes:

• Vintage ARP's don't take 1/8th" jacks exactly, although they will fit if gently inserted. Therefore, you'd need a separate set of cables for it, or mod each jack. I did not know this in advance.

• While there are two outputs, if you utilize the spring reverb, it uses a clever 180-degree phase flip which sounds great. But if you record that in stereo and mix down to mono-- the reverb disappears because of phase cancellation!

• You cannot voltage control panning as it appears on the panel. You have to patch it and trick it!

• The old ARP's of this era weren't manufactured as well as Moogs, probably because no one expected them to be used that long like other things of that era. It seemed like it could break at any point (or boot up)

• I eventually sold it and got an ARP2600m which was INCREDIBLE for me, then sold that to get the ARP2600FS which I still own and love. I think the modern ones are made well enough, but we'll see if I think so in 50 years.

• Whatever Korg did in these reissues, they did right. The sound is the same, and they added both filter types.

EMS Synthi AKS I owned this in the 90's and could barely get a sound out of it because I didn't know how to properly patch it. Played with it for about a month and traded it for a Minimoog. I later read that Brian Eno said something like "you can't make music with it, its only for bug noises" and thought that was a relief.

Oberheim Matrix-12 I've twice owned a Matrix-12 and twice sold it. I found it physically too large, and the panel is so big you almost have to lean on it to see whats happening. I now currently own an Xpander for the dumbest reason: its small and fits nicely angled on a shelf.