I can't figure out why anyone hasn't commented about the fact that the Audya's guitar chords sound disjointed. there are several times where it sounds as if, as one chord ends and the other starts, there is a tiny gap or hesitation...

Not to mention that there is no such thing as an eight string guitar (OK, maybe there is, but hardly anyone plays it!)... If you have a strumming pattern on a major chord, and add the 6 and 9 to it, it is no longer a correctly voiced 6,9 chord. It is a major chord on one guitar, with a second guitar adding the 6 & 9. For it to be a correctly voiced 6,9, two of the six notes already strummed would have to STOP. They don't...

Personally, I COULD hear tonal differences when the additional notes were being added (there's a bit of a 'hang' in the MIDI note, it doesn't phrase exactly to the audio), and the tonality of the added notes sounds like a different guitar (why they didn't make samples from the same guitar they recorded the loops on beats me... it's the obvious solution).

Now, yes, I'm being picky... and those examples sound better than the old ones from OS1 posted way back. But the issues haven't gone away, just got hidden better. But I have to say, from listening to both examples, that IMO there is NO clear winner. Both systems have their strengths and weaknesses, and anyone determined to only see one victor here is altogether TOO much partisan, and not opening their ears enough. Be critical of them both, or accept both, but there's no winner...

For me, the deciding factor doesn't come from what they actually sound like. It comes from what ELSE they can sound like. It is a piece of cake to turn the S910's guitar strums from steel to nylon, to clean Strat, to 12-string. There isn't a damn thing you can do to the Audya's loops. So you had better REALLY, really like them, because you are going to be listening to them a LONG, long time... On many, many different songs (not every style has a unique set of strums and picking patterns, so you are going to be hearing them over and over...).

As someone that only changes out his gear at maybe half or less the pace of you guys, longevity, and ease of making something easily sound different is a very high priority for me. Realism (if only a hair more of it) at the expense of the inability to change it one iota is a poor substitute, in my book...