well, just an update if anyone cares
I've been playing with the solo cellos in the 6 different ones I have, 4 of which are free/reduced versions (though, for the reduced versions, they appear to be full patches, just fewer of them). First time, I was using a keyboard (my remote sl)... this time I programmed a short 2 bar loop to see how they responded. It felt different that way... for one, the garritan pocket orchestra sounds a lot better once you get it into a real context. Not bad for the $5 or so it is going for nowadays! (it comes with dimension LE).
And the deficiencies in the basic Kontakt object are starting to show too... I still think it sounds good, but there is some unevenness and inconsistency in the volumes between the patches, and even the tone in some cases, making certain transitions a bit jarring. Also, the velocity switching in a couple of layers is audible some of the time. The sound of the kontakt samples tends to be a lot brighter in the higher velocities than some of the other libraries - it almost sounds like there is some built-in accent when you use high velocities, which could be very useful in a pop context. Still think it sounds good, but something to keep in mind. To be fair, the patches in Kontakt seem to be designed more for casual users, and there is a lot larger tonal range just from changing velocity than any of the others, so it kind of comes with the territory i guess. Kind of a middle of the road between a 'woody' vintage sound and a 'sheeny' hollywood film sound too.
Kirk Hunter strings sound great, and there are no weird inconsistencies - whatever you do, it is smooth. It's a 10GB library just for strings, compared to about 2GB for the kontakt stuff though (and smaller for the others), so this is expected. Was an awesome deal at $125 in the group buy, still a decent deal at $250 for just strings. Tends a little more towards the 'woody' side than the kontakt stuff IMHO. Can't decide if they were my favorite sounding, but they were by far the easiest to work with.
Miroslav CE - my opinion of this library went way up once I just used it in that simple 1-bar loop. When playing from the keyboard, it felt a little choppy; but this seems to go away once it's sequenced, weirdly. Maybe it was different patches. It tends a little more towards the 'sheeny' side, and felt very consistent when playing it - no drastic tonal changes when going up/down the keyboard or up and down in velocity on the same note. I thought this might use the modwheel for some tonal changes, but it doesn't. This is enough to think that maybe the full miroslav at the current $99 might be worth getting, even with the other stuff I have, though I probably won't because I already have good strings (above) and woods/brass I'd rather have wivi for. But I think if you didn't have anything, this would definitely be something to look at.
Garritan Pocket Orchestra (dimension LE) - OK, don't really expect much from this, it's only 660 megs for the whole library. And it does have a few issues, but i'd probably recommend picking it up. It is definitely towards the woodier side, perhaps more than any of these libraries. It actually sounds very good for what it is. It is a little choppy when playing it with a keyboard, it really sounded bad, but when sequenced again it was much better, not perfect but usable. There is some inconsistency in tonality when going up and down the keyboard or velocities. It felt like less inconsistency than Kontakt in the line I chose, but a different note sequence might be difference. Anyways, it's $5 right now (it's usually $20 i think, still worth it), it's usable as it, but is also great for layering underneath other libraries - it goes great with the miroslav library above. It's in sfz format too, so you can use it in alchemy if you're into that.
Ableton EIC/OIC - I've always liked these, but once throwing it into a sequenced context, it just didn't hold up as well as I'd hoped. The sound was a little duller than the others, and had the same sort of inconsistencies as kontakt and garritan. On the plus side, it sounds a little more intimate, if that makes any sense, which is weird because it also kind of sounds more distant - maybe where miroslav sounds like it's recorded in a large hall (but still pretty dry), this sounds like a small room, but maybe you're just outside the door?. It's not a bad sound, just not as good as the others. I was surprised to find I even preferred the little GPO to it. Hard to describe the sound - it was just different than the rest. You can hear it in the clip that cezband posted though.
EastWest Quantum Orchestra Free - This is a reduced version of Silver that was available for a while. It doesn't have a legato cello but has 'sus vib hard'. This one is very different from the others, and has a very sheeny 'hollywood' sound. If I wanted a 'high strings pad' sound, this is what I would want. Consistent sound, without the inconsistencies of some other libraries. Sadly you can't get this anymore, but it was more or less a demo for the full one anyways. Seems like it would usable in completely different contexts from the others actually, because it sounds so much different.
Now, these are just my amateur opinions, and based only on the solo cello patches (i love the cello!) But hopefully they are useful to somebody. Each library sounds a little different, so when they are cheap, it's good to have them anyways for layering, it's like having 6 different cellos that 6 different people are playing. If I get time I'll freeze the tracks and post up some samples of each one, it won't be a good example of an orchestral piece
but maybe enough to demo the different character of each library.