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Purchased the EPS Classic ..........(more like the bright idea New Coaca Cola Classic) as soon as it hit my distributor's showroom. Paid over $3000 for it. Yepp $3000. My longtime salesman told me this was the hottest on the market, loads while you work, loads while you play, upgradeable, even could play bells and whistles, ...and guaranteed to be a "long term" product he said. I took it right to our studio accompanied with the 8 output expander, and the 4X Memory upgrade for an additional 5 or $600.....whatever.....
Had it operational within minutes, nice..., but don't try to actually PLAY it! Crashes more often than Wile E. Coyote. Convinced that it wasn't capable of performing one whole recording session without querks, the 8 output expander was so poorly made it kept finding it's way out of the serial connector on the back of the keyboard and soon pulled it's little stunt while recording and fried up the display and some other choice overpriced items. FINALLY got the unit back, felt like it returned from an extended vacation. Used the EPS in the studio a couple hours a day, no major schedule, and same as when I purchased it, froze up every time I had a reeeal important command to press......like "naming the instrument" oh...and always when I "saved a file" that I worked on for Eon's!!! Curious, we tested over 3 other identical EPS keyboards owned by either friends or business contacts and pleasantly found theirs to be worse off than ours. Unstable hardware, software was terrible and extremely overpriced. Two EPS Floppy's (new O.S. and a few weak sounds) $100? Checked into that too, same price everywhere. 20 Voice Capability? Nope. Voice Pop outs/Clips where it deemed necessary with no solution. EPS has personal problems with SMPTE Timecode too. We've concluded it suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder (A.D.D.) ... Tuning = (2 words) Nightmare. Slide Controls poorly made stopped functioning. Heavy enough to put you out on disability too! And it always get's it's revenge after transport at your next gig.
Our Floppy drive quit-for-good after it overheard us nickname it Lightnin'. Floppy was so slow I could skoot to the mini-market and back while loading "Grand Piano" or a real special sound like "Clavichord"! The EPS went back to the factory for service and did not see it for 2 solid months. Finally got the unit back, ....didn't even complain about the service duration, and some whiffty neeto tech put the wrong drive in it, aka 750. Broken down only loading half floppy a disk, EPS then forced you to eject 2x to get the other half. Called Ensoniq, they proudly said we must have dropped it, or it was damaged in shipping and we would have to pay........... Didn't EVEN make a fuss and threw it in the storage room labeled "Time Capsule". I just found that old unit today and is why I'm writing this. Interesting enough I have one of the "few" compatible SCSI's that just might help that treasure of a keyboard from it's "WHOPPING" 8MB 4X Expander. But of course Ensoniq was wayyyyyy ahead of us, inadvertenly it appears they sold us a "4X memory" card that had no SCSI port. Must be an option even if you pay for it. EPS is back in storage just "WAITING" to be discovered. Now that's what I call a classic!
sincerely, Nick
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