The JV-80 was an excellent mid-nineties digital synthesizer in its time. It helped lay the foundation for the later JV-1080, JV-2080 and XP-series synths. It featured a full 61-note keyboard and several sliders above the keyboard with assignable parameters for fast hands-on editing. Though its stock sounds are nothing great, it can take any of the SR-JV80 expansion boards for 8MB of great new sounds from any of the Orchestral, Vintage Synths, Techno, etc. sets.

Unfortunately, the JV-80 is no workstation like the XP-synths that followed it. With only 28 voice polyphony and no built-in sequencer, its likely that this won't be your ONLY synth. The JV-90 is basically the same as this, except that it has an excellent 76-note semi-weighted keyboard for a great feel, more memory and sounds. The JV-80 also came in a 1-space rack-mount form as the JV-880. The JV-80 has been used by Eat Static and Vangelis.