Nigel,

I can't say for sure because I don't know your taste in sounds, but if you dismissed the Triton Le, and you're looking for "good out of the box", I'm not sure if the Fantom will fit the bill either. The sounds for the most part are very "thin". The Motif is a nice board, despite my recent complaints about the polyphony. If you're not making layered sounds with multiple samples, the polyphony likely won't be a big deal. The Motif 6 is compact enough, not too terribly heavy ( although it's a bit more than say my PSR2k, and has a much more solid key feel than the PSR2000 does. It also has some very nice sounds "right out of the box".

If you really want that arranger, the PA60 is in your price range too. For my ears it has better out of the box sounds than the Triton Le. When I say better I mean the raw samples might ( or might not ) be similar but there is much more attention paid to producing the right mixes and effects on the "panel voices", therefore better sounding patches..esp the acoustic voices. An important point for you since you mentioned it, the key feel is not as solid as the Motif, but much more solid than the mid range PSR line.

I like the VA76. I can only speak from the perspective of someone who has spent only a few hours playing one, but.. for me, the key feel is decent, the styles are good, and a lot of the sounds seemed to be very nice as well. What I didn't like was the OS and navigating the board itself. This was my chief complaint with the G1000 as well. In spite of that, I'd own one if funds / space permitted.

AJ