This S5000 has been in my home studio for many years and it has brought me great joy (and work). It is in excellent cosmetic condition, no scratches that I can see, even the rack mount holes are not too chewed.

Internally it is also in tip-top form. It has been upgraded with a built in Seagate ST318417W SCSI 18gb hard disk as well as USB connection and full RAM. The floppy drive works too but… well… does anyone still have samples on floppy? (Actually I have a few. Somewhere. Don’t know why. Early ones from my old S950 or S2000 I guess)

It has 8 outputs. I didn’t upgrade to 16 them as I never felt I needed them.

I have used it for pop tracks, idents, theatre scores, corporate themes and assorted backing tracks. Many people say the earlier Akais have more oomph but, for me, this sampler has a fabulous full, rich non-software sound, and has cool and intriguing sounding filters. It’s got more power and helped me achieve a better work-rate than my older Akais. 

I am including these extras in this package.

  • A large set of sample packs (discs 26 packs in all) hundreds (at least) of great sounds. 
  • A CD Rom Drive (yellowish but it works well and loads as fast as it is meant to) 
  • A SCSI cable for the CD rom drive
  • A High Quality 8 output 3/4 jack to male XLR, audio frequency controlled leads loom. Colour coded.
  • A power lead for the sampler and for the CD Rom drive
  • A basic MIDI lead if you want one. Let me know

So you are ready to go, whatever your set-up. All studio use only, including the S5000 itself. 

I have carried out a memory test, loaded up a sample CD, using the included external CD Rom disk drive, loaded samples in and played them. It is all good. 

So if you are into hardware with an edge, this is your chunky little retro friend, and If you know all about them... then you know how good they are.

I don’t think I have the original box but I will make sure it is packed very well when you buy. 

Manuals are available online and I can send you a PDF link if you wish. My S5000 had one owner before me and I only ever had a PDF, as far as I remember. If I find a manual at any stage, I will send it separately.

This is a bargain. Many of these are offered at this price (and more) for just the sampler.  

More Information on Akai and the S5000

The Akai S-series samplers were the finest 16-bit sampling instruments ever made (at least on this planet). Not just my opinion. 

They feature great sound quality and flexible editing, are easy to use ( after a bit of button learning)  and very powerful in terms of sound outputs, effects and editing (time-stretching and more). 

This knobby grey box of fun has plenty of RAM and polyphony and I have loved it. Unfortunately, I have to scale down my studio, or it wouldn't be for sale. I have used it for pro and personal projects up to a couple of months ago. 

Still popular with many other pro, amateur and pro-am artists and producers, Akai samplers have been used by Beatmasters, Black Box, Enya, Fatboy Slim (who I believe still uses them) Ian Boddy, KLF, Underworld, Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran, the Prodigy (my bandmate once lent our S950 to Liam but he eventually upgraded to an S5000).

Any questions, feel free to ask.

Happy Bidding.