My goal, when I sit down at a keyboard, and punch up it's best piano sound, is to get the illusion I am actually sitting in front of a real piano (key-feel aside!).

I have played many of the world's finest pianos, Steinways, Bosendorfer's, Kawai's and, yes, many, many Yamaha's. But I have NEVER sat in front of a piano, and got that cold, brittle, darn near tack piano sound out of ANY of them, Yamaha's included.

Sure, you pound the living bejesus out of ANY of them, you can get something like that, but the minute you back off, get into mf and downwards country, all of a sudden the sound warms up, you hear the wood and the soundboard, and the sound goes quite mellow, and expressive. But still close.

The Yamaha arranger (and WSs, IMO) never achieve that warmth as you play softer. They just, to me, start to sound more distant, but still bright. It's as if, to get quieter, someone just pulled the piano back 20 feet or so

But they NEVER give me the illusion of sitting at a real piano unless you are pounding them. There IS a recording at P.Creek of a REAL piano playing the same piece. Listen to it's tone as it plays the softer passages, then go and listen to the sampled pianos... Night and day, in most non-software pianos, IMO.

Once again, all my opinion, yada, yada, yada.