I have several ensoniq esq-1 cartridges, and VFX carts. Will they work in an SQ-80? I’m considering selling my esq-1 that has a broken key if these will work in my SQ-80. Just don’t want to mess anything up. Thanks
The ESQ-1 carts will work in the SQ-80. The VFX carts, though, are different - they are only for the VFX, VFX-sd, and SD-1.
Hey All 
I recently bought a used ESQ-1 from a local pawn shop that needed some love. I’ve purchased three cartridges from eBay and Reverb that “fit” the cart slot and only one has worked so far.
All three of them were sold as ESQ-1 carts. Two of them were missing labels (one of them was for my ESQ-1) and the other gave a read error. I pulled the non-read one apart and searching Google, I found out that it’s possibly a VFX cart. Numbers on the PCB are ASSY 40900107 PART 4001010701 REV 3 with “22C” written in felt pen in a white box. It has a Xicor X28C256D-25 ceramic eprom in it.
I received the third cart today, a Maartist Inc. MusicPack MR-1, which can’t be read in my ESQ-1 either.
Is there any guide anywhere online for us noobs to cross reference what carts go to what? I know from taking the cases apart carefully that the only true way to tell (I think) is by seeing the PCB card itself as the two that don’t work have the eprom oriented vertically and the one that does work is oriented horizontally on the PCB. I can provide pictures if it helps the cause.
The cart that did work has a sticker that IDs it as 1355500592 VPC1 4164 and the patch list crossed to SQ80 Factory Disk (VSD-99) Bank 14 Classic 1A/1B
according to my research online.
Dan Gibbs