I’ve received mine, and:
I totally agree. The setup options are far superior to any wind controller I’ve ever played. Totally modern, especially the user interface that makes it so easy and convenient to adjust. The problem with Akai and Yamaha (and probably Roland’s Aerophone), I guess, is that the market is too narrow for them to update the hardware. I loved my Yamaha WX-5, and it’s still a quality instrument, but it’s never been updated. This Sylphyo’s touch-sensitive controls and onboard screen are really nice. I do wish it could be made even lighter to reduce thumb fatigue, but this is the first wind controller I’ve used that doesn’t require a neck strap.
I don’t see mold as very likely, particularly if you’re blowing through the thing daily. You never inhale, in any case. They should sell an accessory that lets you slide an absorbent material in one end and out the other. It would be easy to do it myself, but the hole in the bell is really small, and I’ve covered it with tape to get more efficient breath response. I imagine I could pop off the mouthpiece, attach some fabric to a low diameter wooden dowel, and swab the inside easily enough.
This leads me to my standard complaint about condensation with wind controllers: after you play for a while, they start dribbling non-stop, which is an issue in my playing space. Just to let non-wind players know: it’s water condensed from your breath, not saliva. It’s not disgusting, it’s just that water starts dripping where you really don’t want it. I wish these Sylphyo makers had thought of that, too, and provided some sort of detachable enclosed water collector with at least a 30-minute reservoir. In the past, I’ve jury-rigged things, but talk about un-professional looking.
The simple design and non-flashy materials do look toyish, but everything is functional. My Roland Aerophone has cosmetic appointments that do give it a more professional look, but quite frankly a lightweight wind controller is going to look toyish. It’s a matter of the things that you control with the controller that enable you to feel you have a serious instrument in your hands. A plain tube can work quite well to control modular CV, for example. My Akai EWI-5000 felt like a serious chunk of hardware, but I had a very low tolerance for those onboard synthesized sounds. It was wireless, but with a more cumbersome setup than this Sylphyo, and it was also much heavier. My Aerophone doesn’t make me feel like a fool to play it in front of people, but only when I use the muted trumpet and the multi-sax. Everything else is a toy, but trumpet and sax are enough. The Aerophone, though, doesn’t interface well with external gear. The test with this Sylphyo will be how well it interfaces with SWAM, and it does say it’s built for that. In my limited tests, I’m not recoiling from its onboard sounds, but based on experience, I expect it’s just a matter of time. Oh yeah, I expect it will also work well with the classic Yamaha VL-70m, which I had for years.
Time will tell how rugged the Sylphyo is, and at this price it better last decades. There are no moving parts, so, like the EWI-5000 I used to have, you don’t have to worry about keys breaking.