The more you look at those sample load times, the more you realize that something has gone seriously wrong with sampler designer's priorities.

What use is a LIVE sampler with such glacial load times? My ancient Kurzweil could manage 1MB/sec, well over twice as fast as these so-called 'state of the art' arrangers and workstations. Of all the features that make the difference between a REAL sampler and a 'wannabe', in a 'live' sampler, speed of loading should, IMO, be the most important. Fancy cross-fades and auto-looping aren't much use if you have to shut your show down for minutes at a time just to load them...