Don't feel too bad about it. Bear in mind that there is a lot of great gear around that is not officially supported any more. Whats more important is that you learn to use whatever you have.
A quick glance at mpc-stuff.com should reassure you that if you were to get a 2500 and a fault was to develop, you'll be able to get a replacement part fairly easily. Don't be afraid of eBay either - if you are careful and ask the right questions you can pick up a good deal. Sometimes people don't want to put in the time to learn what they have (fair enough) and just want to sell it. I bought a 2500 on eBay, 2 x 1000s and a 500 from the site.
The 2500 with JJOS is a pretty good combination to have and looking on these forums, is better thought of than AKAI's 'flagship' model, the 5000. There are many posts here questioning AKAI's intentions towards the whole MPC line. From a business point - the new controllers, are less expensive to manufacture than the mpcs and could potentially provide a better return, however feedback on the new devices on these forums is not particularly good.
Take some of that curiosity and look around, Akai units such as the 3000 are still going for a reasonable price even though they were around at around the same time Dubya's old man was running the show...
There's a very good reason for that.
MPC 3000
ASR10 x 2
Korg SV-1
