The rule is this simple for me. Specs are good.. as a reference point. I'll decide if I want it based on what it does when it's in my hands though.

When I look seriously at a new board, it gets a good workout with an eye towards overall sounds, overall features, how the OS will work, key feel, polyphony ( in my hands, not based on specs ), and a few other things.

I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the specs when I'm testing a particular board, other than as a reference point when looking at the individual features.

In the past two editions of the Fantom, when I came across some of the keyboard based sounds, it pretty much ended right there. I didn't like the Rhodes, Organ, or wurli sounds much at all when I compared them to the Motif series. I'm hoping that this time will be different, because the OS seemed very logical vs the Motif.

AJ