All three literally sound great to my ears. Yes, I know none are superlative samplers. Can you help me out here with this decision?
Triton:

• Do you have to re-load the expansion boards every time you power up?!
• Triton not compatible with Trinity expansion boards. Will Triton's replacement leave Triton owners in the dust?
• Official Korg website is not so helpful.

Roland XV modules

• No problem with expansion boards when you power up/down.
• No arpeggiator!
• Roland products historically back compatible. Eg--all JV owners' expansion boards can be used with XV modules
• Better official website but that may be negligle with forums like this and other unofficial web sites

The Korg Triton rack is the better choice. You get good sampling, good effects, the MOSS expansion(different synth engine), Mlan option, and 8 expansion slots.

The roland has the better standard accoustic pianos and pipe organs.

The korg owns the rest.

>Do you have to re-load the expansion boards >every time you power up?!

no

>Triton not compatible with Trinity >expansion boards. Will Triton's replacement >leave Triton owners in the dust?

Difficult to answer. The same system is used in both the triton, triton rack and karma. That is something, at least.

>Official Korg website is not so helpful.
Yep, we have been complaining for 2 years. Fancy design, but difficult to find info, badly organized and seldomly updated. Why cant they sack all the webdesigners and get one guy to make a plain html file with helpfull news and downloads?

I mean the new stuff first appear in magazines (keyboard magazine), then at the korg.co.jp site (in japanese), then, after some months at the korg.com site.

But they are very helpful on updating those "who are using korg products on records" ads... grrrrrr :-)

regards
Knut Inge

btw, some helpful links:
[list]

[*] http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~knutinh/tritonhardware/index.htm (my site)

[*] www.korg.co.jp in japanese. most recent updates

[*] www.tapesh.com/triton very good bbs (the best)

[*] www.tritonhaven.com best independent site not updated as much recently
{/list]

As between the XV-3080 and the XV-5080, I would think the 5080 is the much better choice except for former 1080 owners. The 5080 has a better interface, more expandability, sample playback capability, and digital I/O.

Between the 5080 and Triton Rack, the decision is much more complex. The 5080 gives you access to a large expansion library on ROM. You are more likely to find a specific sound you are looking for available for the 5080. I use the Asian, World, Vocal, and Orchestral II (Celtic) ROMs, and still have room for another 256MB of ROM. Also, samples can be loaded from SmartMedia instead of via SCSI, which is handy.

The Triton Rack has 8 ROM expansion slots, but there are not even 8 ROM cards available yet. Piano is still a weak point, and ethnic sounds are wanting. The MOSS option is a big advantage, as is the arpeggiator. (However, now that the Karma is introduced, who cares about the arpeggiator?)

To decide, consider what sounds you need and what other equipment you have or intend to buy. If you can find all the sounds you want on the Triton and existing expansion cards, it may be the beter choice. However, check out the Roland sound libraries before making your choice. On the other hand, if you do not mind loading samples from disk every time, then the Triton may be the better choice whatever sounds you are interested in.

Clif

Thanks for your time and opinions!