Hardware Sampler/Looper/Stretcher

Hi Boa Family!

once again, here i come bothering you guys! heheheh

I made a topic sometime ago asking for advice on buying an external pitchshifter/timestretcher only to realize that i was confusing things up, there's no such thing as an real time timestretcher, but there are pitchshifters.

I bought an pioneer efx500 for studio use, i like very much of the hands on approach and quick effectiveness using the transformer, delay, echo, pan, wah, fuzz, and zip. Mainly the zip. as it's algorithm is based on a pitchshifter. But the zip effect isn't quite good as i expected.. well at least it's not sucking 50% of my cpu as the Waves Soundshifter! heheh But.. it's not accurate enough! even if i use a lil bit of it only, it never manages to "sync on" perfectly.. like every 4 beats, one of the beats will have a slight-micro sync off or delay that don't allow me to record a perfect loop. Damn! I was thinking that this wouldn't occur on the hardware side of things (well maybe with an more expensive pitchshifter it wouldn't happen, dunno!)


But well, i'm now looking for adivce on buying an sampler machine that record from anywhere from 8 seconds to 12 seconds of incoming audio and loop it and stretch it. Liam Howlett from The Prodigy in the old days used an AKAI S1100 for this purpose and among others, but that machine is the size of an VCR! I'm looking for something more compact, and good, dedicated for this. And simple! just some knobs and buttons, something that you can work really quick with! Maybe even if an pitchshifting effect if possible, but if not, no problems! I'm just looking for an external simple and good machine that can do this. Any tips?

And also, what 1/4" cables would you guys recommend me buying for my external chain? i'm hooking up my M-audio NRV10 and EFX-500 using some crappy generic 1/4" cables that introduce noise and they sound kinda weak. Was considering buying this one:

http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=2321

but well i'm always open to suggestions, rather being more expensive or less expensive, is always good to hear from people in the know.

That's all folks! thank you.