Sold for $5595, shipping $900 from Dallas. In the comments is an interesting point made by someone who contacted the seller. From the seller:
Here we have the king of FM synthesis and one of the "Holy Grails" of vintage synths (in my opinion). The Yamaha DX-1. Only around 140 of these were produced at an original cost of $13,900 in 1985. That is $26,500 in today's money! This is serial number 118. Yamaha hand selected the finest components available and hand assembled each synth. This is very apparent when you see, hear and play it. The keyboard action is luxurious. It is equipped with a professional wooden, weighted 73 note keyboard. The sound is stunning. I know everyone on ebay says their item is "amazing" but there is something special about the DX-1. I have A/B compared it with Yamaha's FM plug in board, two DX-7s linked together, and a DX-5 and there was no comparison. The DX-1 has a distinct superiority in sound every time, and it's not just a subtle difference either. There is a rawness to the sound of the DX-1 that is lacking in other FM synths. It feels alive, like an old modular synth's immediacy of sound and control. The only way to get the sound of a DX-1 is to own a DX-1 , no software emulation or other synthesizer compares in my opinion. (I have since sold the other Yamaha synths on ebay and received positive feedback for them all) This synth is functioning perfectly and just received a check up at Audio Electronics here in Dallas. Cosmetically it is a 7/10. It has a few light scratches and spots were the acidity of hands has dulled the finish, especially around the volume slider and from taking it in and out of a flight case when moving it from studio to studio. It has been professionally owned and maintained it's entire life and has been used on countless recording and film scores but over all, it looks fantastic as you can see from the photos, and will stop any vintage synth enthusiast dead in his tracks
in a comment on the ebay auction someone said: "Noticed your selling your DX-1, I own one myself, bought it back in November 2001, after 5 months of searching 2 to 3 hours daily online world wide, I finally found the one and bought it. I was lucky to find 8 for sale back in 2001 but I was lucky to get mine. Mainly owners don't want to part with them, only 140 of them are made, some claim 200. My story is rather long but I always suggest keeping your DX-1 to anything. I have 2 find who looked for one and both took 2 years of searching, infact one sold his and regretted where it took him 2 years to find another one. Anyway give it some thought, these are hard to hard and I wouldn't suggest selling it but keeping it and babying it forever, they are beautiful synths, Scott"
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