Hi there.. I wouldn't pay more than $700 for the ESI as listed w/equipment you mentioned regardless of who owned it. I own an ESI w/32mb ram and the scsi and I LOVE IT!! Actually need to get the ESI-4000 for my programmer since he needs more polyphony,etc
than what I need.. The ESI came with a couple sets of disks, don't know why the person wouldn't give those to you ? Anyway.. If you can get it for $700 def get it and upgrade it when your finances allow you to.
I'm more of a guitarist than programmer, but my guy thinks the time stretching, and ease of use to be pretty good. I've used it for drum looping just to jam and it's been easy for me to understand..