The first synth I ever played was a "vintage" Prophet 5 in the 90s, now I have a reissue Prophet 10 from this "not the same business entity", as you very much are correct to call them. Even if they are not the same business entity, I know a lot of the people involved in making my Prophet 10 are (or where) the same people making the famous synths of yesteryear. When you play the Prophet 10 you can also tell.
I am really sad I can't say the same thing about my Moogs.
And I am sure that long experience goes deeper into Sequential’s talent pool.
Having veteran leadership who hat been through it all before might be why the new Prophet won’t follow the old.
The current Sequential is also an established company, so it is better positioned to launch new products, negotiate with suppliers and customers and to sell gear at higher prices even if not at higher margins meaning it needs fewer sales to survive.
My Matriarch is also my second unit, the first one broke. Some uC decided it was not working anymore and the delay and some of the other buttons would randomly switch state. It did that after I had had it for three months while I was playing live for a small group of people, it was the first time it was on for more than an hour or so but besides that nothing had happened to it. I didn't even moved it and I'm religious with dust covers and all that.
Also, the Moog One seems to be plagued with problems, which is sad given it's humongous price
Unless you just use it as something like a poly memorymoog, it's rough. I can see how a really virtuoso synth player with the right programming can probably play the score for Blade Runner on it or something without any other instrument, but the programming is a PITA. I think it's kind of like a engineer-designed instrument. For the semi-modulars you can tell they had input from really good players for most of the features and ergonomics, but the One is just "let's do everything we can on a single instrument" and it just doesn't fit.
It also really does everything. There's a guy on Reddit that has like just a One and a laptop and that's his studio in a tiny apartment. If you are working in the box but want to record analog sounds and have an ADC that will do the Moog low end justice, I guess it's great. I can't justify that money on something that doesn't give me utter joy when I'm playing it like the Prophet 10 does, the One feels more like I'm playing with an Elektron box, which I do enjoy but when I want to play synth I want to play synth.
Edit: obligatory Jump. It can even sound like an Obie https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2-1u1qJQMOs
Making synths seems to be more the life of an artist than many other possible pursuits.
The standard formula is the best way to make a small fortune is start with a large fortune and do X.
In the first version I heard X was build a golf course. It was from people involved in building golf courses. The money was in the lots along the fairways.
Which is why I saw the headline and thought “going bust is what happens to synth manufacturers” and this is that part of the cycle.
And not to say that it isn’t a bummer.
And not to say that today’s Sequential doesn’t make great gear.
Just that making synths seems to be a hard business, like most manufacturing and art based businesses.