I stand 100% behind my assertion that Hydrasynth is absolutely NOT just 'wavetable + subtractive + linear fm synth' @perilousp, yes there is a similarity to a Virus from a quick look, but it is so much more than that it's silly. I love FM8, but Hydra kicks it's ass in many ways. As I say, 30+ years experience here and it tops everything in this domain - quite literally the best FM synth I have ever used, by far, there are more sculpting options than you can shake a stick at, just one example; check out the PW-ASM [Warp] feature - absolutely out of this world and totally unique as far as I know - it sounds exactly what you are looking for to me.
...but sure, ignore me and carry on, it makes no difference and I wish you all the best :)
Yes - @sacguy71, Hertz Donut mkII is also really excellent for FM and beyond - I use this a lot too - truly outstanding character! When I first got the Hydra I thought a lot of The Harvestman and that it might replace those, there is definitely that noisy racket side to the Hydra - the noise options are excellent, as it turns out several months later they are still different enough, I find them extremely complimentary! It's rare to find a desktop synth that can hold it's own against such exceptional stuff like The Harvestman - but it totally does. I would also be interested to hear your experiences with Elektron, I have used all the old machines and know them inside out, but did reach limits with them and actually it was the Elektron machines that first inspired me to get into modular back in the day. I should probably check out their new stuff more. That little Model:Cycles looks like a fun little box, it would be nice to get hands on so I can actually speak about them with confidence and knowledge, trying to ascertain features, playability, sound etc from a manual is always going to fail. I need to do the same with the Argon8 - that seems similar too @Lugia!