Recommend me some synths/sample sets

So long and the short of it is I have a couple of Eastwest products and while they make amazing samples, their programmers are extremely poor. After years of waiting Play 4 is out and it STILL doesn't work right. So, I'm about done with them. Time to move on. What I'm looking for is a replacement to their Symphonic Orchestra Platinum and Goliath product. The requirements are good sound and working well with Sonar. While I'd like to not spend too much, no $20,000 recommendations please, I'd drop $500-1000 if it was worth it though I sure wouldn't mind less :D. Sampled (or modeled) stuff is what I'm after, in terms of more pure synths, I'm pretty good with what I've got. In particular good orchestral instruments but something all-around is nice (Goliath covers a bit of everything). Also I'm more interested in something that sounds great out of the box (as the Eastwest stuff does) rather than something that takes a bunch of tweaking.
 
Thanks for any thoughts you have.

Vienna Symphonic Library or Kirk Hunter Strings.

I think maybe Kontakt is in order, particularly since I think it can handle the old Eastwest Kompakt stuff that I still have. I don't have everything in that format, but I do have some stuff. If it is stable, that right there is a big selling point :P.

I think the consensus would be that the full Komplete is the better deal, because you get so much stuff in the bundle. Especially if you qualify for a discount based on a previous purchase. Personally, I've never been tempted because most of that stuff is of no interest to me - just Kontakt.

Unfortunately this is a question that only you can answer. You have to take a hard look at what is offered and determine if it is of any value to you.
 
I have FM8 and Kontakt and I have no need for the others. (On a side note 32 bit FM 8 works well in a 64 bit system but the 64 bit FM8 has problems, check NI’s forums for details.) About 99% of the songs I do have Kontakt in it.
 
If you decide on Kontakt only you might have some money left over for some third party sounds.
 
Just my thoughts.
　

How's Omnisphere in terms of the software? I'm looking at it and it does look like I might be interested, but as I noted with my Play experience, I am tired of stuff that functions poorly. How's stability, usability, all that jazz?

Kontakt was the only thing I wanted from NI. But the deal took hold. (I got a 20% coupon from a dealer that already had it discounted for Komplete.) Sample Instruments that come with Komplete have been far less than impressive to me and I started looking at the other instruments to see if anything impressed with it or if I would have to chalk everything up to a bad learning experience.

Battery was the strongest  for me, the samples are very solid. I've since found more favor with the classic synths, Absynth & FM8 as solid sounding and little CPU Drain. While Reaktor and Massive haven't yet struck a real chord with me. But for the price, it still seems the way to go.

Battery was the point that caused me to upgrade to K9U. (And I thought I would get some better string samples for Kontakt too). (And I got another 20% off a dealer's regular 20% off price for it also). Again, the strings were just okay, but the added drums in Battery are nice IMO. There are great things for Kontakt from third parties, some have already been mentioned here, I just can't get behind any on the Native versions.
 
Have to say overall, the package price still seems the way to go.

I said "the hell with it" and got Komplete. I like the pianos, if nothing else. I'll probably look at Omnisphere too, I like the demos I heard and so long as it isn't craptastic like Play, that'd be nice.
 
I seem to have actually fixed my play problem, but through the dumbest method ever which indicates a serious programming flaw in Play. So I am going to start building sample sets in other synths. I love EWs stuff, but I'm done buying them. This has been YEARS of problems.
 
So Komplete for now, maybe Omnisphere later.