NI Symphony Essentials

I downloaded them all, and have been testing them this evening. Kind of a mixed bag. They are pretty basic, but with some nice features and a pretty nice overall sound (for most of them, anyway). I like the Ensemble Strings, which sound good and have a full set of basic articulations. Don't like the strings repetition/ostinato tool -- sounds way too mechanical (there doesn't seem to be a particularly deep pool of round robins for the short articulations). The sustains have a wide dynamic range, and I found it pretty easy to get a realistic dynamic arc with the mod wheel.
 
Woodwinds are quite nice - maybe the best overall sound. In particular, the Solo Woodwinds sound excellent, and have a surprisingly full set of articulations, including double-tongue, swell, sfz, crescendos and decrescendos. 
 
I'm not liking the brass libraries at all, so far. I've just started messing around with them, but to my ears they sound wooly and indistinct.  Also, the legato transitions are kind of swoopy, and just seem rather artificial. They do have some nice articulations -- double-tongue, swells, etc. The Ensemble Brass seems more useable than the Solo Brass. I really don't care much for the sound of the Solo Brass library at all.
 
I'm glad I downloaded them, though. They are worth checking out, and there is definitely some useful stuff in them, although they wouldn't stand a chance of supplanting any of my current goto libraries.
 
I will probably try and see how the different libraries mesh together. Maybe the brass ones sound better when in context with the string and woodwind libraries.