Dave Smith Instruments SYNTHESIZERS

I do not curently own an evolver, but I am considering buying one if 
I can ever hear one in Phoenix. (Guitar Center, who is unfortunteley 
their dealer here, does not have one on display.) So, take my 
curmudgeonly opinion with a grain of salt.

No instrument which uses a wall wart can be considered considered 
well-bulit, in my opinion, or at least hardly road worthy. The unit 
itself may be very well built, but wall warts are cheap commodity 
items which typically employ no strain relief (or, if it does, it 
will most likely be a flimsy plastic tab near the connector), use 
cheap wiring, and the DC connectors in the base units themselves are 
cheap receptacles costing pennies, with sloppy mating action, and are 
probably rated for only 50 insertion/removal cycles. I would bet that 
manufacturers who employ wall warts do not bother to test the 
individual wart before shipping.

Generally, vendors (of which DSI may very well be an exception) will 
claim that using a wall wart in the design isolates the unit from AC 
noise, while never explaining how other manufacturers of professional 
equipment o=have overcome this deficiency. Or, they may claim that 
use of a wall wart makes it easier to pass electrical compliance 
testing in various foreign markets while having to support only one 
base design/unit.

The truth is that a small investment (maybe $1, I'm guessing 
educationally) will probably permit installation of a workable AC 
unit that can accommoddate most forseeable markets' line voltage 
characteristics.

I interpret use of wall warts as a sign of contempt by a manufacturer 
for their customers. This reaction may be a little extreme, but wall 
warts certainly are not indicative of a desire to make their products 
convenient, sturdy, and easy to use.

Having said all that, I'm still anxious to be able to audition an 
Evolver here so that I can determine whether the instruments benefits 
outweigh this one aggravating shortcoming.