all hands on deck! I want a sampler!!

looking for something thats affordable. Under $700ish is desired

has to be FUN AS ALL HELL TO USE and is more of a loop mangler then a traditional sampler like that of the MPC1000 (I think, I have no experience with samplers)

want something thats similar to that of MD-UW, any ideas?

used is hunky dory and actually preferred since you get more for your money. Fun to use is def the highest priority.

Ensoniq ASR-X Pro, except its not that fun to use when it crashes.

For loop mangling, SP-404 and KP3 combo will fit your budget (used or reboxed). I've been using the 404 as my sampler soundbank for my non-UW MD, and will use the KP3 to flesh out the on-the-fly sampling aspects of the UW. I enjoy the immediacy of this arrangement.

the RS7000 also has some impressive capabilities in the loop mangling area. Not as good at being a traditional sampler, since it can't do normal multisampling (either one sample per note, or one sample for all notes, no sample ranges, at least not with Awave + some work). But for loop mangling, it has a bunch of different filters (which are mostly variations of analog-style filters, but you get low/high/bandpass/bandreject at 12/18/24db, some EQ style filters, and some weird ones like 'dual lowpass' (two resonant peaks), etc), decent effects, plus a master effect section, real time loop remix, plus the normal shuffling etc. It's limited on how many of these you can do at once - but you can resample directly on the box, and just make it a sample. It also does the record-during-play thing, so you can jump in and out of an x0x style sequencer if you want.

But... you can do all this in Ableton Live using Simpler or Battery/Kontakt as well....

I wouldn't characterize my experience with the RS7K as "fun as hell to use". It is an excellent phase sampler though.

I'd suggest one of the Electribes. Cheap and fun. Diametro ought to be along any minute now to tell you why.....

Roland Sp-555 maybe? It has lots of builtin effects, can do pattern sequences and real sampling with builtin mic, or external mic, uses compact flash cards for storage (2GB) and can easily interface to computer to copy samples to it. I use mine to store a few simple drum loops and and some special effect sounds. Pretty fun once you get the hang of it.

My vote is also for the SP series, SP-303 especially, which is cheap as the proverbial chips. SP-404 as well which is probably more useful, updated and tons more memory, SP555 looks cool. The SP series completely define phrase sampling fun, I love 'em to death. Oh SP-404 runs on batteries too.

Never really played with one, but the original V-synth comes to mind with the word loop-mangling.

Also check out the KP3 for sure - lots of fun with the looper / granular effects. It syncs to clock and plays nice with other machines too.