My post will start with a sad story. I was at my local Guitar Center today to try the MicroBrute. I was struck by the poor selection of keyboard instruments...no Roland, no Korg (not even a microKorg!), just Yamaha XF, MOX and MOXF but only in 88 key versions. As of today...the end of March 2014...you cannot find an MS20 mini, a MiniBrute, Volcas or Bass Station II in any suburban MA GC store.
The downtown Boston store has some of these in stock, but I am too lazy and cheap to take the drive, pay the tolls and parking just to window shop. I waited almost two years before a Kronos showed up on the floor here.
It used to be that there were local music stores that
did carry current synth equipment, one had the Yamaha franchise and stocked all the DX/TX and SY/TG models while three others had Roland, Korg, Ensoniq, Casio, Sequential, etc. So during the MIDI explosion of the 80s it was easy to drop into a shop and try out all the latest and greatest. If it was made between 1981 and 1991 I've played it.
But GC ran all the small stores out of business. Over the last decade GC stopped stocking synths, I guess because they weren't moving enough of them. Now the only way I can check out new gear is by ordering it online and then returning it if it sucks. This is progress? Maybe if you are into buying restocks and refurbs
OK, so I played the MicroBrute for an hour and was impressed with what $300 will buy. I was mainly curious about the filter and as soon as I cranked the res I heard the out of control screeching that my old pAiA 9700's used to put out. I have to say it, there is a reason that many vintage multimode filters do not self oscillate, it's because they aren't stable at max res. The biggest disappointment however is the lone EG. The maximum times are way too short! They are spec'd as 2.5 seconds for A and D and 5 seconds for R. This was something that bugged me about the MFB Kraftzwerg, too...I need longer EG times. Give me 10 seconds at least (like the MiniBrute) and even longer would be better! The rest of the synth was as I expected after all the YouTube demos and I do agree that as a first analog on a tight budget it's a great deal.
So although I will not be buying one, at least my curiosity is satisfied

I listened to Hatfield and the North at Rainbow. They were very wonderful and they made my heart a prisoner.