2600 for me too. It sounds like everything I always imagined in an analogue synth. I haven’t had the opportunity to play with any EMS units & I’m sure I’d feel similar about them, but the brief time I spent with the ARP left me in no doubt that it was The Sound.
For me it’s got to be the SH-1, especially as mine has a somewhat knackered filter - gets all those Chris Carter / Throbbing Gristle evil sounds going quite nicely.
Pretty much every Dreadbox analogue - Erebus, lil’Erebus, Hades, Nyx, Typhon and the Hysteria Chromatic module all sound great - and it’s worth restating just for the hell of it that the SV-1 sounds amazing. The MFB Kraftzwerg is impressive thanks to three oscs and a lovely SED filter, their Dominion Club sounds thick, especially it has to be said with a sprinkling of its 2-operator digital FM osc too.
I’ve had both, though the original MS-20 was only on loan - I’ll have to compare recordings I made with the MS-20 and my MS-20M, but the latter still sounds great and more than enough for my purposes. Maybe when it’s accumulated yet more dust it’ll have that vintage audio patina - I’ve never tried a Mini though.
When it stays in tune for longer than 2 minutes my pittsburgh system 90 is analog fun on a bun…(not including the additional DNA digital osc which is nice just not analogue)…its a fun 2 minutes…then a really shitty 20 minutes trying to get the sound back.
I have a Mini and it’s my synthiest synth, if that makes sense. It’s raw and noisy and absolutely loves spring reverb
I have to agree with the mention of the Werkstatt too. Sure, it has all the limitations you’d expect in such a modest unit, but the throaty oscillator sounds amazing and the filter is superb. It sounds very much like a Moog - more so than other, more expensive/advanced Moogs I’ve had
And in a mix the difference is probably not as clear, and in some cases one can’t tell if there’s any. But we are talking about that 1% - 5% of pure magic which surely is in vintage issues. Maybe even more in mkIs. The filter itself is more “elastic”, with a bit different nasal character. I would say, og sounds more emotional and picturesque: ) immediately captivating
I also do believe that M / FS are a few steps ahead of mini, not sure why, but seems like they’ve different int. design / components