I just fell back asswards into borrowing an Alesis Ion long-term.  I love it so far, plus, it is literally smeared with the blood of the previous owner (he's still alive)

Sequential Circuits prophet 600- the worlds first (commercially available)  midi synth.
Dark and moody- does 'dawn of the dead' soundtrack by default.
Has some faults, but overall an amazing analog poly with a very cool arpeggio/ sequencer.
(tho' maybe Im biased - I got mine for free-found it in the attic of an old apartment!)

I know you're all talkin' keys, but this is a good opportunity to mention/brag about my replica 1929 RCA 1264 Theremin (as seen in my profile image)
The RCA theremin was the very first all-electronic musical instrument and the grandfather/cornerstone of all electronic music. Also it is played entirely without touching any any part of it.
I built this one last year  with some parts from  old RCA Radiola Am radio.   Has 80+ year old tubes the size of 100w incandescent bulbs and huge hand-wound coils.   Check out more on my site:   www.charliehobbs.com

Yamaha FB01. Bitch to edit sometimes but gorgeous once you get it open.

All i have synth wise is a microkorg, but man how much i want a roland SH09, wooooo

Waldorf Microwave XT

My top favorites are (ones that I plan to use for the rest of my life):

Roland Juno JX8P
Roland Juno 106
Roland Alpha Juno
Roland MT-32
Ensoniq SQ80
Yamaha YS200

They are all great in their own way!

I do still have a DX7 though,, which I never really delved into yet.. which I should.

The Novation A-Station has some pretty neat sounds but fuck me it's a bitch to program.
Bought a Kawai K4r recently, nice sounds good sounds sweet sounds hell yes

Yamaha An1x
Yamaha Tx81z
Notation Xstation

I'll never part with them.

'nerd

Absolutely adore my TX81Z.

FM synthesis is just so beautifully harmonically rich that all that analogue subtractive lowpass mud no longer satisfies me.

I've owned and used a lot of synths. The only things I've really kept are my massively rebuilt Sequential Circuits Pro One, and a Nord Lead 3.

I'm a Korg man, MS2000, MicroKorg, circuit bent Kaossillator, and KP2. Looking to get a Moog eventually.
n00bstar - There are ways to record with analog equipment and digital at the same time. The way I have my analog toys set up is my synths going through a Behringer mixer going to a Sony VSC tape deck, then to a Fostex A4 reel-to-reel, then to the Mbox for ProTools. By having them wired in a chain, it makes it sooooo much easier to get a good recording on multiple formats, plus once it gets to the Mbox, it has a VERY nice cripsy analog distortion to it. I definitely agree that if you're really going for the pure analog sound, then it's kinda pointless to have your analog instruments recorded solely with digital equipment. The analog instruments produce the sexy sounds, but without the "fuzz" that you get with analog recording equipment, it's pretty much the same as using midi patches on Reason or some other VST program. I wouldn't say that it defeats the purpose of using them, because it's always more fun IMO to use actual analog hardware over software in any scenario. It's all personal preference though.

Roland Alpha Juno is the only synth I didn't sell so I guess it's my favorite by default. I don't have the heart to get rid of my hoover machine.

I can't agree that digitally recording analog synthesizers defeats the purpose of using them. They're tools in their own regard, and they'll do whatever it is they do, however the rest of the toolchain looks like, as much as the rest of the toolchain will.

Speaking of Dave Smith stuff... Anyone had any fun with a desktop Evolver?

Hehe. I've owned a lot of the classics at one point or another in the 90s during the first wave of analog revivalism (and back when the prices were still reasonable heh). Then years later I worked in a music store so I could just borrow whatever they had when I wanted. Gearlust left me years ago And today's synths leave me fairly unimpressed anyways. The only two analogs I had a soft spot for in the last decade or so were the Little Phatty and MiniBrute. In both cases it's because they have a very distinct character and a few weird routing possibilities that are both unique and limiting. Too many synths today do "everything". My friend has a Mopho and I borrowed it for a while to check it out a bit, like all the other dave smith hybrids, it didn't to anything for me. Too clean.. too plastic, no distinct personality to it.

While there is a definite charm to hardware synths, I find that today's syntheads mostly don't know how to use analogs properly. Most of these synths today end up being sampled with entry level soundcards and then processed digitally, which for me entirely defeats the entire purpose of using analogs in the first place. Maybe I'm just a tired old fart, but if I'm not going to end up hooking the synths to a noisy analog board and end up dumping it all to tape before it gets sampled and burned to CD, then I'd rather just use VSTs.

I've dabbled with hardware stuff over time, but I sold a bunch of it. My favourite by far is the original Novation Bass Station, I just keep coming back to it. I also like the Alpha Juno.