The AF MkII and AR MkII are also rackmountable using Elektron’s RMK-3:
https://www.elektron.se/ca/rack-mount-kit-3-black
I don’t think Elektron is selling spare boxes of their products… ok ok I just put it there
I was pretty firmly on “Team MK1/AK”, but after a few hours with my new (to me) black MK2 today, I can see both arguments.
What you get for another $300-$400 on the used market can really be worth it. The sound out of the MK2 is noticeably big. Quick Perf and ladder filter / overdrive improvements add up. This thing sounds almost as big as my Pro 2 now.
Truth is all three (four if you count the black and grey MK2s separately) are worth it. Buy what is right for your budget, creative needs, and physical space.
Comparisons against new prices are a bit moot at the moment, with the used market so flooded thanks to impending recession and pressures of inflation. Many are having a hard time selling their used gear and that is driving prices down. It’s a buyer’s market for used right now.
All of the A4 variants are good. Price and studio space are the main reasons to prefer one over another.
Love my AK, but wouldn’t mind a Mk1 again or a Mk2.
I was ambivalent about the sound of my Mk1 after buying it 5 years ago ( first “nice” thing I ever bought after 20 years of messing around with old cheap gear like DW8000s and CZ1s).
Anyway, I put it away for a year or so because I was busy with my business and then brought it out with a Neutron, ready to go big again (with a tiny setup), but I dropped it and its nun-functioning now, for the last 7 months. But for that week I had it going I was definitely turned back onto its charms.
The point of this ramble is that the Mk1 is great, but one reason for a Mk2 (or Keys?), would be individual outs. The dang A4 is amazing at percussion actually, and in my current need/use case, if mine were not broken, I would be using it as primary percussion with individual effects chains on the four outs, or using a mixer. To me, that is the only bummer about the Mk1 vs the Mk2. In fact, if the Mk2 had only stereo outs like the Mk1, I’m sure that I would in all cases prefer the Mk1, because I also like the smaller form factor. I have a feeling that the audio difference would be, in most (not all) cases, negligible.
Managed to grab an MKI waiting to land on my door soon, pretty excited to check yet another Elektron machine