For sale is this amazing YAMAHA DX5 with original manuals, flawless working order, generally excellent cosmetic condition, and an incredibly warm, powerful sound... far bigger and more "analogue" sounding than its little brother the DX7! It has just been serviced by CimpleSolutions in London and sounds stunning. It requires a step-down transformer to run in the UK or Europe – see the "Power Supply" section below.OVERVIEWJust in case you don't know...! The DX5 is, effectively, the same beast as Yamaha's flagship DX synth, the DX1, but in an enclosure that does away with the DX1's massive LED display (aww...) and gains a more playable keybed (yay!). Its sound engine is identical; its presets were identical (in fact, it shares the DX1's factory cartridges, which are labelled "DX1/DX5"); and it sounds just as good. (I know, because I've owned both.) The DX1 looks cool, and heats your room for you; but its wooden keyboard is very, very heavy to play. The DX5 substitutes a semi-weighted plastic keybed that almost everyone massively prefers; back in the 80s, even rich pros who could afford the DX1's £10k price tag often opted for the DX5 instead, simply for playability. It's a delight to perform on, thoroughly responsive, and makes the most of the velocity sensitivity of the FM patches.Soundwise, the DX5 is often described as "two DX7s in one unit", but it's actually a lot more than that. It does indeed house two DX7-style sound engines, whose tones can be combined (split or layered) into 64 Performances; but rather than being mass-produced with off-the-shelf electronic parts, DX5s (like DX1s) were built by Yamaha's engineers with hand-picked components. This attention to detail yields exactly what the FM experience should deliver: shimmering, detailed, complex synth patches with bite and depth, but without the cold brittleness for which the DX7 is often criticised. The DX5 sounds warm, BIG, powerful, and distinctly more "analogue" than you might expect.The factory patches and Performances for the DX5 are identical to those of the DX1, and were custom-programmed by Yamaha's sound engineers to take full advantage of the twin, layered, detunable sound engines. Almost all patches come in two variations which have been created from the ground up to layer together into one Performance. This is miles ahead of simply layering the same patch twice and detuning it, and the richness of sound that the DX5 produces is real testament to Yamaha's cleverness.If you want to stray beyond the factory patches, the DX5 helps you out with a LOT of buttons, a nice big backlit LCD pane, and all the info you need silkscreened onto its front panel. It's much, much friendlier to program than any of the DX7s.OPERATING CONDITION / SERVICE HISTORYWhen I received it, some of the front panel switches were occasionally failing to trigger. To cure this the DX5 has been overhauled by CimpleSolutions in London. All the switches have been cleaned and now operate perfectly. They keybed has been checked and everything's as it should be. The synth works flawlessly and sounds stunning. It's worth pointing out that DX5s and DX1s both use D-to-A convertors on their headphone sockets which are different to the ones on the main outs, and these produce quite a hissy sound; but this hiss is not present on the main jack / XLR outputs at the rear, which sound very clean due to the hand-picked electronics. DX5 afficionados never plug their headphones into the keyboard itself! :-DCOSMETIC CONDITIONThe synth is in generally excellent condition but there are several small scratches on the front fascia, plus one minor "ding" just above the Bank Select buttons, which I've tried to highlight in photo 11.There are also some small "bubbles" behind the LCD panel. These appear to be defects in the plastic; they're not water droplets which they look a bit like. I've tried to highlight them in photo 12. They're noticeable from some angles when the synth is switched off but much less intrusive when it's on and the backlight is lit. I asked CimpleSolutions to look at this when they were servicing the synth, and their take on it was that replacing the entire LCD unit could possibly be done but was probably not cost-effective for such a minor issue. In normal use I certainly hardly notice them.POWER SUPPLYIMPORTANT! This is a Japanese model and requires a 100V step-down power convertor to use. You can get cheap ones on eBay for as little as £10 but I don't recommend them; a much better, heavy-duty option can be bought from AirLink transformers (Google them) – one of their "500va 230v to 100v Voltage Convertor with one Japanese socket" units will set you back £54 but won't hum or buzz or interfere with your other studio electronics. I use them all the time for Japanese and US models and recommend them thoroughly. (I can't sell you mine cos I need it for my other kit!)INCLUDED IN THE SALEBUYING ITPayPal only, please. I'm very happy to pack the DX5 up and ship it: please check my feedback, I'm a very careful eBayer and use tons of bubblewrap! Alternatively you are welcome to collect in person from Willesden Green, North London NW2.BUYING IT FROM ANOTHER COUNTRYThe courier cost of £126 is an ESTIMATE. If you want to bid from outside the UK, please get in touch and I can message you a proper quote tailored for your location. Then when you buy, I'll invoice you for the full amount of the auction plus the appropriate shipping costs. There's normally a spread of possible prices, from quick-but-expensive to cheap-but-slow!