The only reason why I have a analog synths is not so much for palying with though that is part of it. Actually I like them for the asthetic value. Mor like nice dispaly pieces that can still be played with, which actually I do just to keep them maintianed. Also becuse to me theses are nice exzpmles of early electronic instuments. The real reason why a lot of theses early synths like the Memorymoog, the source and poly moog was do to the fact that ARP and Moog did not spend enough time on research and Devlopement, as well as testing. Plus they used a lot of cutting edege technology that was being produced and most of it was not tested before being put in to the synthesizers. However Moog did rectify the porblem of unstable oscillators in the Mini, with a new more stable oscillator board. Only Mini's with serial numbers greater than 10175 have this new board instaled. So finding a mini with a seiral numbers greater then 10175 will be alright too own. Any before that would be the ones with the problems of oscillator drift. Some of the ARP sytns tend to be better built espically the AXXE and OMNI and I own two early modles but latter serial numbers. Synhts with later serial numbers and latter models tend to far better then earlier ones. Same with the Sequential Prophet 5 the revision there is the best one to own becuse it has the least amount of problems. (Prophet 5 parts and ead prophet 5 are worth gold, amnily becasue finding parts for these is hard) Alhough Wine Country Productions carries parts but I don't know how much of there supply is left by now. As for the Japanese synths by KORG, Roland and Yamaha most are pretty good to own. Like the Poly-61, 800, and DW-8000 from Korg. The Polysix tends to have a problem with the internal battery leaking. The DW-6000 just stay away from. I have heard the Juno-60 is a good one to own as well as the 106 manily because of the DCO's inside. As for Yamaha I don't know too much they produce a few good ones like the CS-40M and the SK-20, & 30 though these are symphonic keyboards. Actually it was the Launch of the DX-7 in 1983 that put Yamaha on the fore front of Synth manufactureing. It's all digital has MIDI. So there is no problem with oscillator drift. I would however stay away from the CS-80. I read that many techs refuse to work on these becsue they are so un-reliable. So as far as early analog it all depends on which model and serial number synth you have, that will give you the least head aches. My Omni and AXXE still work with no internal problems. Still turn them on and work with them. As for my Minimoog I will have to wait and see. And a VA one well I am still trying to figure out which would be the best one to own. Personally I just have an obsession with synthesziers, I guess that is why I call myself a synthfreak.