{"id":829552,"date":"2026-07-28T18:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T18:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829552\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T18:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T18:04:09","slug":"vangeliss-very-first-yamaha-cs-80-is-up-for-sale-on-reverb-for-an-eye-watering-figure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829552\/","title":{"rendered":"Vangelis’s very first Yamaha CS-80 is up for sale on Reverb \u2013 for an eye-watering figure"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever hoped to craft your own Chariots of Fire, now\u2019s your chance. Someone on Reverb<\/a> is selling a vintage Yamaha CS-80<\/a> that apparently belonged to the track\u2019s iconic composer, Vangelis<\/a> \u2013 and if you\u2019re lucky, some of his mastery might brush off on you.<\/p>\n

While the seller does hail from Athens, there is no concrete evidence linking this Yamaha synth to Vangelis. Though, the listing<\/a> claims that the vintage synth was the very same one used throughout the Greek composer\u2019s 1977 debut, Spiral. It was also apparently Vangelis\u2019 first Yamaha CS-80, and, in the seller\u2019s words, it is priced \u201caccordingly\u201d at \u00a3401,465.62.<\/p>\n

Other details include the lack of blemishes on the synth \u2013 bar \u201ca little cigarette burn on the top A key\u201d, which does fit the bill, considering Vangelis did partake in a smoke here and there.<\/p>\n

The seller promises that the CS-80 is fully functional, \u201cwith its original stand and lid\u201d. It also apparently has no serial number, due to it being an \u201cearly prototype\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Vangelis\"Image: Getty<\/p>\n

A vintage CS-80 is already a guaranteed pay day \u2013 last year, Gear News<\/a> branded the synth one of the most expensive of all time, and we concur. You can easily bag tens of thousands on a standard CS-80\u2026 but, if it was also owned by the mind behind the epic 1994 Blade Runner soundtrack, it\u2019s sure to hike up the price a bit.<\/p>\n

If the claims are true, this would be a very significant piece of musical history to own. A CS-80 owned by Vengelis would certainly have been treated with care; the composer famously spoke of his adoration for the Yamaha CS-80, with the synthesier becoming a mainstay in his life.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In a 1984 interview<\/a> with\u00a0Electronics & Music Makers journalist Dan Goldstein, Vangelis said: \u201c[The Yamaha CS-80] is the most important synthesiser in my career \u2013 and, for me, the best analogue synthesiser design there has ever been\u2026 It needs a lot of practice if you want to be able to play it properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

He even went on to dismiss Yamaha\u2019s attempts to improve on the CS-80, calling the DX7 a \u201ccommercial little toy\u201d of a synthesiser that was \u201ca step back from the CS-80\u201d.<\/p>\n

If the synth sells, and it is proven to have belonged to Vangelis, it would make it the most expensive synth sale in history. Last year, Kraftwerk<\/a> had a clear out and bagged $256,000 at auction for their Kling Klang Sennheiser VSM-201 Vocoder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To inspect the Yamaha CS-80 listing, head to Reverb<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Get the MusicTech newsletter<\/p>\n

Get the latest news, reviews and tutorials to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019ve ever hoped to craft your own Chariots of Fire, now\u2019s your chance. Someone on Reverb is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,146344,105],"class_list":["post-829552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-hard-synths","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}