I am primarily a guitar player that was looking for something to add percussion to my recordings. I bought the SP606 because I knew I would never get bored of the sounds because I could easily change them. It has not failed to meet my needs. I have even found myself creating music on this alone. The built in sound are not very useful. They consume the first 4 pad banks. These are among the 16 easiest to reach. So if you don't use them you have 12 easy to reach pad banks (there are more but then you have to scroll through a list rather than just selecting by pressing a designated pad).

Sound
This unit only plays back what you put in. So, Garbage in Garbage out. Quality in Quality out. If you put CD quality samples in you resulting music will be CD quality.

Features
The onboard memory is small, so you will definitely need to add a Compact Flash Card (none provided). There are more effects than I know what to do with (yet). The D-Beam is fun but I haven't found any practical recording application (this is geared toward live performance which I do not do). USB connectivity makes adding samples pretty easy. Cannot find a way to adjust volume of individual tracks in the 4-track sequencer. I don't use the software component much (yet). I bought a hardware component because I don't like composing music at a computer. Features like Autochop, Time Sync, velocity sensitive pads, USB connectivity, MIDI Sync, 45 effects, 3 effects… read more processors, companion software... make this a very complete package. The single biggest drawback is the 8 voice polyphony (I expand on this in the Value section).

Quality
I have had no issues in the few weeks I have had it. The OS has been solid with only one malfunction (you must shutdown the USB connection from the comuter or it will hang). It sits on a desk in my home studio. If I took it out I would purchase a good case and be careful as its mostly plastic.

Value
As an introductory piece this is worth every penny but for all in one music production it falls short. I bought this as a drum machine that I could load whatever sounds I wanted into. For that purpose the SP606 is more than enough. I found myself making types of music I had not anticipated. And here is where I ran into some trouble. Most of the samples I use are stereo. This reduces the polyphony to 4 voices. So a kick drum and a symbol sounding at the same time (common) now leaves me with 2. A bass synth and a hi hat leave me with 0. I will probably resample to mono to get around this but if I really wanted to keep the stereo sound I would be stuck. That being said I also have a mutitrack recorder which can always be used to give me all the polyphony I would ever need.

Manufacturer Support
Good luck... Roland is notorious for poor customer service. The have virtually nothing on their website (nothing useful anyway) and are closed by the time I get home from work. My biggest problem with them is that when I need them they are not available.

The Wow Factor
It looks very sharp (the SP 505 looked like a toy and was considered one by many, the change in look was dramatic).

Musical Background:
Hobbyist

Musical Style:
Whatever enters my head but mostly guitar based read less