I have had the System-8 a few days now and thought I would share some of my initial thoughts.
Pros to me:
The Design is Awesome. I love the Layout and the look.
The Sound is Awesome!!! The System-8 and Jupiter-8 Plugouts sound good but I am more familiar with the Juno-106.
I updated the firmware which includes the Juno-106 Plugout. This is what I was really waiting for. I am really impressed and relieved to see how well this creates the sounds of the Juno-106 Synthesizer. I had the JU-06 but I was not able to faithfully recreate my favorite Juno-106 patches on it. It seemed to lack the sweet spot of my Juno-106's filter and its associated parameters I am not sure but it was not doing the job as well as I would have liked even though it definable has that Juno character. Is there a difference in the Plugout and the JU-06? I do not know. Maybe the sliders were to small for me to dial in the sound I do not know. Anyway, with that and the lack of polyphony I got rid of it and I do not miss it because so far I have recreated 5 of my Juno-106 patches and they sound like a real Juno-106! Kudos to Roland!
Cons to me:
The Build is OK. The jack for the DC in is weak. My Jupiter-50 has a nice solid socket but the System-8 does not and it is a bit wobbly and seems fragile.
The red LEDS for Tempo and LFO are a bit smaller than the panel holes they fit into and there is an annoying gap on the right side of them. Picky I know, but my Akai Timbre wolf has many LEDs and all of them fit nicely with no cheap looking gaps.
I added the Aluminium side panels. They do enhance the look and even make the System-8 seem for more sturdy but I hate the way they feel because they are brushed aluminum. They actually have a texture that you can feel. To me it is not pleasant to the touch because it feels too rough. Too bad they were not polished.
There is no random function on the arpeggiator? Maybe I have missed something but that would have gone good with the Jupiter-8 plug out.
My Verdict:
The system-8 is an awesome synthesizer. With Roland's ACB, their classic synths and engines can be recreated pretty faithfully with some additional functionality added. I think it would be to difficult or even impossible to produce re-issues of those classics (because of some of the discrete electronic parts that are no longer supplied). But what do I know.
The System-8 is a keeper! I will be incorporating it for live use (and recording) with my Jupiter-50.