So... I'm in Japan (Tokyo) at the moment... and I got curious about the MPC500... I have been looking at them and thinking, "I wouldn't mind one of those, if for nothing else but the bus ride to Uni"...
Akai is a Japanese company so I thought I might score a deal and get one really cheap! So far I have been into about 10 music shops... the kind of music shops that sell MPC's, MD, MnM, Dave Smith, Doepfer, etc... the right kind of shop and I keep asking "Do you have the MPC500?"(in japanese of course)
and what do I get?!?!? complete and utter astonishment, no one has even heard of the thing, as in didn't even know it existed, let alone stock it.
How is this possible? I remember when Japan was so far ahead that you'd hear about gadgets and just say "no way, no way some ones made that!".... but now it seems that their own companies are entering foriegn markets before the sell domestically... wow!
Just in case anyone is interested. Korg, Yamaha and Akai (all Japanese) are ALL more expensive across the entire range here in Japan then they are from
www.novamusik.com (U.S.)