I may be interested in a (probably second hand) Prophecy or Z1.
I heard both and I've been more impressed by Prophecy sounds,
though it's supposed to be approximately the same synthesis.
Maybe it's only because the Z1 factory patches are not so good.
I don't know which one to purchase : both have pros and cons for me...
The main advantage of the Z1 is its polyphony / multitimbrality,
(but I already own a MC505, a JV880, a S2000, a M1 i'm gonna sell and
a Kawai digital piano as master keyboard)
The Prophecy is much less expensive, and would spend less space in my
home studio (+ a fancy look...)

So the decision could come from the synthesis capabilities of the
2 devices. I know they're almost the same but not exactly. I'd like
to know precisely what the Z1 does compared to the Prophecy.

As far as I know, the Z1 doesn't have the waveshaping stage of the Prophecy
(Prophecy users : is it a powerful stage ?). But it has new physical models
like E.Piano, Organ and Bowed strings.
Are the Reed/Brass/Plucked string models the same in the 2 synths ?
What about filters, amplifier and effects stages ? are they identical ?

Can you make all the great sounds Prophecy does with a Z1 ? If the Z1 equates
12 Prophecys for less than twice the price, it becomes very interesting...

Thank you for any information, personal opinion...

I haven't done any programming for the Prophecy yet, but looking at the manual, the wave shape section seems to be pretty powerful.
Two independent wave shape tables are provided, one for each oscillator. These modify the waveform to create elements not originally present, such as resonant or distorted sounds.
Looking at the diagrams, it appears that you can morph between either of the oscillators and their (selectable) wave shapes.
There is something similar to this in the "Rubber Duck" soft synth for PC. You can morph between two waveforms. Rubber Duck call this two oscillator synthesis. Using their terminology I guess that Prophecy uses four plus the sub osc.
The Prophecy version has various gains, feedback and cross loop, and input offset parameters.

I own a Prophecy myself and have also played the Z1 and I can tell you that the Z1 has more Physical models although the bowed string model is a really hard job to program any sounds with. The Prophecy sounds a bit indirect as if it were looped through some FX although none has been used.
I think the Z1 has some faster EG's(for better percussive sounds) than the Prophecy.
Last but not least the polyphonic arpeggiator of the Z1 is a real great deal. It's more like a sequencer.
The Z1 is polyphonic.
But one great plus for the Prophecy is the weird Ribbon- control- wheel that is great for manipulating more than one thing at a time.

P.S.: The Z1 Factory sounds are real bad, but it's capability if you do the progamming job on your own is great!

Yours

MCML

Just go get the Z1!!!!! Even it's plucked and wind structures sound better than the Prophecies. Yes the factory presets are different but you can much more easily program a Z1 from the front panel and it has so much more in terms of real time control.
Yes the Prophecy has the cool mod log bender but the Z1 had the fantastic XY ribbon controller.

If you only need monophonic sounds, save you bickies and get the Prophecy but REALLY, you can get that and MUCH MORE by simply paying extra and getting the Z1!!!!!

PS- as you can see, I really like my Z1! Cheers. Korgasm.