Squeaky,

I'm afraid I am not familiar with the artist you mentioned but all the more so with the PA-80 and it is my opinion that the strings in this Korg keyboard are among the very best to come out of any arranger keyboard.
Actually I am getting more and more positive about the PA-80 by the day. Recently I have acquired some great new styles, a.o. through Fabio's site (see other entry) and I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of affordable flashcards enabling the PA users to import external samples.
I just finished writing a part-review for a Dutch keyboard magazine on the pros and cons of the PA-80 and in particular on the new operating system 3.0.
Being highly critical at first I have had to reconsider as well. I still think the PA is a great keyboard that is basically underrated by most keyboard players because it is somewhat less user-friendly than other keyboards, which is true. However having said that I have just replaced some of the (fixed) interior styles by external styles, just mention me one keyboard with which you can do so. Apart from 48 user styles and 48 styles on disk with direct access, you could also clear out the total contents of the 256 styles and have them replaced with your own.
Furthermore ,for those of you reading this and getting interested (again), soundwise it holds its place very well , with ,to me, as absolute favourites, the sax sounds !!!

john.