No no no, quite the opposite!
The QY700 has one of the best XG ROM’s I’ve heard, it’s one of the main things I like about it. Trouble is, I reckon most people who have used or own them aren’t even aware of how to access the XG sounds, and only make use of the General MIDI soundset. Just about every demo I’ve heard on YouTube appears to use the General MIDI soundset, and even then, they appear to be leaving the sounds very ‘dry’ instead of making use of the effects processors. There’s nothing wrong with the General MIDI or XG sounds, it’s all typical high-end Yamaha waveform data in there, it’s just that they’ve not washed them out with over the top reverb and DSP by default like they do on other models.
It’s like I explained to Vic in that other thread, the QY700 isn’t designed to be ‘glamourous’ with flashy sounds out of the box, it’s aimed at a more general, professional market, so coming into contact with one for the first time will feel very plain, subdued, and formal. You have to learn how to use it before you get the sounds you want out of it. Bear in mind that it’s main purpose is a sequencer, so they formatted the sound ROM out of the box in a way that would work especially well for MIDI sequencing. There’s serious power hidden inside, but you have to learn how to use it, and even if you read every page of the manual ten times over, there are still things you will not understand until one day, you do something and realise, ah, this all makes perfect sense now, I totally get why they did it that way. I’ve had mine for ten years now, and I was still discovering stuff just a few years back!
Me, I even use the QY700 as a sound design tool, but you think a QY700 is only worth £200. Well ok, but I know how to use a QY700 inside out, so I know what it’s capable of and what it’s really worth, and to me a QY700 in the condition of that one shown on Gumtree is worth at least £400. I would never want to be without a QY700, put it that way, and that one was in very nice condition.
Think of it like this … a QY700 is basically a box of tricks that you put your own mark on. The amout of magic you can pull-off with it will relate directly to the amount magic you learn to conjure-up with it. You could be the biggest prick on YouTube demonstrating the QY700, or you could be the biggest QY700 genius ever where people say, that’s amazing, how the fuck did you do that?
Like I said though, she’s not for you, she’s not your type. She’s a bit like the hottest hooker on the street. People keep picking her up, prodding her, but ultimately give-up on her cause they fail to see the refined woman inside. But all of those who stick with her know they are dealing with a true “Pro”. She knows all the tricks and can work wonders for your output if you push the right buttons 
I judged the sounds based on what I heard on the youtube videos (and they sounded quite shit), but ofc, I don’t have an informed opinion on the real scope of it given the fact I never used it. x)
In terms of the price, I said that it’s “worth” less because I was already interested in them a few years ago and they used to be in that cheaper price range, so I wouldn’t go for anything higher than that, really. And it shouldn’t become more expensive just because it’s older now (I really hate the idealization of old, retro-ish gear…). In terms of how much it really “should” cost, I really can’t judge that. Every time I use Renoise I feel like it’s almost criminal that it’s so cheap. It’s almost like I’m robbing them, lol.
I certainly believe that the QY700 is a very powerful tool once you learn it inside out, same as with Renoise. Squarepusher’s stuff is enough proof of that (and he’s been using it for over 20 years now). The main reason why I opened this thread was to get an of whether or not it would be worth to surrender some of my Renoise abilities to dive into the QY700. Basically, whether or not I’d come out the other end “richer”. I don’t know the answer to that though.
