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Well, I've been using my old AX7 for about 4 or 5 years now, so I suppose I should know a bit about it. To be honest I've never learnt the ins and outs of its PCM2 synthesis, because I decided early on that it was a bit naff. The 'board does however have many other things going for it.
The fact that I've carted it around the country for the last few years is a testement to its build structure - very solid metal casing, with a hard plastic top. The only damage its had in that time (apart from thousands of bumps and cigarette burns) are broken struts inside, and I think a couple of the keys are snapped (although they stay in place, just wobble and click a bit). This does however make it pretty unportable - even with a case you wouldn't want to carry it for more than a minute.
The preset sounds are generally uninspiring, although for its time the piano modelling was pretty good, and combined with touch sensetive keys and 8 note polyphony, it made a very cheap alternative to an electric piano when I bought it. Beyond that the jazz organ is great, strings 1 is excellent, brass is quite funky, vibraphone is epic and vocal is quite ambient. Shame about the complete lack of pads though. The percussion and accompianment is akin to an electric organ - cheesy but usable. I generally just use the drums as a tempo click track - especially if the drummer is late :-)
The keyboard can be split, although you only have solo with one hand and polyphonic in the other - can still be useful live, but you'd want to multitrack for recording. The echo, sustain and delay are also great for live use.
In terms of programming it looks like quite a lot is possible, although the reliance on sampled sounds (split into an attack sound and a body sound) means you're a long way from wild analogue type stuff. However, if you want cheap, reasonably modelled "real" type sounds in a sturdy keyboard, I would heartily recommend you find the AX7.
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