JV 1010 or XV 2020

[petter]

Is there such a difference that justified the extra cash?
They are both reader cheap on second hand. Still, the XV 2020 costs almost double that much than JV 1010. Thanks!/P.

[spkguitar]

Sound on Sound has a review of the XV2020 that makes a few comparisons to the jv1010.

[bb_aus]

first of all what do you want to get out of it
they are a different series, XV is more expencive because it is newer and still in production
to to-host serial port on the JV is replaced with a USB port on the XV, if that interests you. personly i prefer to stick with MIDI rather than bother with extra USB devices but i have more MIDI ports than i know what to do with

with these modules alot of the better quality sounds are on the expansion boards. the JV also has the 'session' set onboard with is nice and the JV boards can be had dirt cheep but you are limited to 1 in the 1010. i picked up one direct from roland for $99AUD the retail on them is like $600AUD. the XV uses the newer SRX boards which have some better sound and a wider range but being newer im not sure what you can get them for.
i would also look at more vintage modules many sound great and can be had dirt cheep or prehaps something like a JV1080. i often pick sounds in my U-110 or S-50 over the JV-1010

be carfull of rolands polyphony, while it is 64 voices a single patch can use upto 4 voices and you can suddenly be a bit short

[A2D D2A]

If you listen to the output signal from the 1010 compared to the JV-880/1080/2080 you will find the sounds don't sound quite the same.
The 1010 sounds noisier or maybe more distorted.
I would look at the full JV units (880/1080/2080) instead of the 1010 without a doubt, since the sound and feature set makes it a much better unit.
If you plan to use the XV with a computer then it's ok, if that's not your choice then it's probably a bad choice.