> It looks cheap because it is cheap—something like $60 US

I just got one for $48 on aliexpress.

It's not unfair. Looking at my home studio here I have nine different MIDI synths all set up, two require adapters, and for some reason one set of these sets of identical-looking adapters doesn't even work properly on one of my synths that needs 'em. The other takes both, one only likes one pair. It's a huge pain in the ass. Other issue is they come out easily, DIN has a very solid connection and it takes quite some force to remove the connector. Also I'm not entirely sure how good the isolation is on those little 1/8" jacks, proper DIN MIDI connectors are all opto-isolated so you don't get ground loops.

The ass part about jacks is that there is apparently 2 standards for midi over jack, with various gear manufacturers split over which one to use. You can make device accept either but it's pretty rare sight.

Connector wise, far superior to DIN midi

> but jacks for MIDI is unfair, I think.

Feels like studio setups are personal and individual enough that you can't say it's fair or unfair for someone else to care about specific features. Everything I own, including my own modular synth, has MIDI DIN ports on them, so I too look for that in new gear, but friend of mine too don't use MIDI for anything, obviously he doesn't look for that :)

> but jacks for MIDI is unfair

not the person you're replying to, but -

I would be ok w/ the 1/8" jacks if there weren't TWO STANDARDS to keep up with. madness!

I've been using my M8 and the FM-1 together, they make a good combo.

I bought a Polyend Tracker and it also has a toy-grade build. I love the instrument itself, they just open-sourced the whole software stack as it's going discontinued. But the device itself is cheap and the rubbery coating on the top panel is already starting to wear under the knob where I rest my hand. I want to build a custom enclosure that has a tilted screen, real MIDI ports, and a wooden top with a palm rest when the plastic eventually gives out or gets too gross, quite a few people have done custom enclosures even with internal batteries already.

But yeah the cheapness is an issue. Even older entry-grade gear, while often entirely plastic, is much more robust and with real ports, they often have one of those little plastic rakes that retains your power cable too. A three cent addition I'm sure but one which is great to have.

I already have some groove boxes, what does this one bring to the table? Every groove box is annoying in its own way even the really good ones. I have yet to find something that does it all better than the good old MPC. I need a MIDI event list editor, very very few grooveboxes offer this. Only Emu/Ensoniq, Akai and Yamaha's did. Akai still offers it but I don't think their newer mini-MPC has this.

Correct, it does not have a fan

Korg, Behringer, they revived the cheap and cheerful modern MIDI music device market. We'll have to wait and see what kind of musical impact this has, so far Equipboard is showing one guy with a pic of it.