Akai X7000

There are no complicated menus to crawl through on the X7000, every parameter can be accessed by pressing one of the facepanel buttons (well, to be honest you may have to press some twice for velocity functions). Trimming samples is a breeze using the big jog wheel, and you can just audition the sound as you go using the keyboard.
Sampling sound is easy enough; you just set the base key and sample rate, adjust the trigger threshold and you're away! You really don't need the manual because everything is marked out clearly on the faceplate. The only part that can get confusing is when you're trying to quickly swap between samples to edit. A simpler way of selecting which sample to work on would be nice, especially when you're trying to match parameters on a few different samples.
Really though, this is just a minor quibble with an otherwise good system.

You get six note polyphony, which for what most people will be using this board for will be more than enough. Some have individual outputs retrofitted, which lets you chuck the samples around in stereo using a mixer. MIDI capabilities are very nice indeed, with very pressure-sensitive keys, program change messages, and sysex editing capabilities (more on this later). There is a disk drive for 2.8 inch QuikDisks but don't expect it to actually work, as this is always the first part that goes.
The filters are surprisingly warm, and almost sound analogue. They can be tied to note velocity as well.

This board is best described as rich and warm, but unfortunately given the miniscule memory you're not going to get much in the way of upper harmonics because you have to sample at such low sample rates. While the X7000 can have up to 40kHz sounds uploaded to it via MIDI (using one of the very temperamental Atari programs out there) you can only sample from the inputs up to 16kHz. This isn't a sampler you use for accurate and bright sounds, but it is good for experimenting with and getting some strange tones. Don't bother using it for drums, because it just takes too long to load up the samples and set their parameters. And seeing as how the disk drives always break, your chances of being able to save any samples are pretty slim.
But it's still great fun overlaying stacks of sounds recorded on the spot, such as acoustic instruments or synths. A cheap VA sampled onto the X7000 sounds almost like a true analogue, warm and full.

Never failed me once, and there's not really much that can go wrong. I wouldn't gig it simply because I can't save the samples on it, but in terms of reliablity you could leave it on all week, come back sunday and pick up where you left off!

I'm not sure if Akai even knows they built the X7000... With something this old I wouldn't even bother.

If it were lost or stolen I'd never find another one, but if by some strange twist of fate I did, I'd grab it instantly. It's not going to be the centerpiece of your sound, but it's such a fun and inspiring instrument to have around, and one that can make an almost endless array of very strange and very nice sounds. Worth the space it takes up in my studio (forgot to mention, these things are BIG!)