Can You Tell The Difference? Akai MPC60 II vs 3000 vs 2000XL vs 500 mixes

Can you tell the difference?
The sound of the flagship MPCs have made many hits in many genres. Roger Linn's collaboration with Akai produced the first MPC the 60 back in 1988. Then in 1991 they released the 60 mark II which has the same engine as the original 60 but was made of plastic and was upgraded with a headphone jack at the front of the machine. In 1993 Akai and Roger Linn released the MPC3000 as a major upgrade on the features of the 60 with increased sample time, stereo sampling, and a LP filter. Both machines were built and aimed at the professional musician and studios.
The 2000XL was the second attempt by Akai to make a budget MPC for the home enthusiast without Roger Linn, that was cheaper than the professional models (with the OG 2000 first released in 1997) and this was released in 1999. The 2000 series was also responsible for many hits in the late 90s and early 2000s.
The 500 was the truly portable MPC that ran on batteries. It's regarded as an entry level MPC for the home enthusiast as it only had stereo outputs unlike the professional machines that also have 8 individual outputs as standard, and the 2000 series had it as an option.
The 500 was thrown into this test as a wild card. In a blind test can you tell which MPC is the 60? Which is the 3000? Which is the 2000XL? And which is the 500?
Converters do matter in my opinion. A great sounding machine means less work to fix the sound for the mix engineer and mastering engineer. As hobbyists and up and coming engineers we can experiment with our own mixes and demo masters but for a proper release I would advise using the professionals to at least master your music.
The mix and demo masters were done by myself for this experiment. We don't listen to the actual machine when we listen to the final product. The sound has been mixed and gone through processing for the mix, then it goes through more processing for the master. That is the sound that we hear on the records both old school and from the major label releases. Some engineers can literally do magic with whatever they are given. Some can make what we may class as a toy sound better than a professionally recorded song.
Anyhow this one is part one of the "Can You Tell The Difference?" series.
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