no, RM1x (1999) was the cheaper competitor for Roland MC-505 (1998).
E-Mu Proteus 2500 series (rackmount Proteus 2500 itself and desktop Command Stations) was released in 2001, and has much deeper synth engine. it’s definitely the deepest engine of ROMpler type, and one of the deepest digital synth engines ever created — that’s why i bought the spare unit.
they also have advanced sequencer with a lot of features (polymeters not supported though — but can be done via arpeggiator), 2x16 = 32 MIDI channels (dual MIDI Out, but single MIDI In), and 32-part arpeggiator.