VST Samplers comparison table.

[MacTron]

VST Samplers comparison table.

	Halion	Kompakt	Sampletank	EXSP	MachFive	Kontakt
Multipart	10	5	10	0	10	10
Instruments Menu	5	10	0	10	0	5
Play from HD	10	10	0	0	10	10
Conditional Groups	5	10	0	5	0	10
Multiformat Import	5	5	0	0	5	10
Copy Protection	5	5	10	10	0	5
Totals:	40	45	20	25	25	50

Multipart is the ability of manage several MIDI channels with a different instrument each one, with only one instance of the plugin. This is very important if you use huge amount of instruments, it is hard to manage a song with 16 instruments and 16 instances of the same plugin. Furthermore some Daws like Cubase are limited to 8 instruments!
The Instruments Menu is a very comfortable way of access to large libraries. EXSP and Kompakt have a very good one. While Halion one isn't hierarchical and only can accommodate 128 instruments.
With Conditional Groups I mean , key switches, and mod wheel Fades, Round Robin ... etc
Play from HD or Direct from Disk in NI terminology allow us to use instruments without the need to be fully uploaded to RAM. This ability is present in EXS24 in the last Mac Os 9 Logic versions (so it's punctuation should grow up to 35) , but no in the VST version and In to Mach Five versions 1.2 and up.
Copy Protection scheme of MachFive is iLook based hence its bad punctuation, while Sampletank can be "freely" used.

So the ranking Should be:
# 1 Kontakt
# 2 Kompakt
# 3 Halion
# 4 EXSP
# 5 MachFive
# 6 Sampletank

[DieHard]

Wow, incredible work... I know they all have their strengths and weaknesses, but please let us know what you are rating as the the best overall in features and stability for moderate to large projects...

The overall winner is...

[MacTron]

The main point here is the feature list. The Ranking isn't to take much seriously... but may help to some novice.

Wow, incredible work...

Thank You 

I know they all have their strengths and weaknesses,

Yes it is. The main point is what features are more important for an user or a project. Each one should make his own scoring table. Even Sampletank can have its place.

but please let us know what you are rating as the the best overall in features and stability for moderate to large projects...

I have to remind that we are talking about VST plugins. If you are using Logic 5 or 6, EXS24 probably will be the best option.
Once said that, I think that in the VST arena, the battle is between Halion and the NI couple.
In my opinion, for a moderate project Halion should do the Job very well. But if a work huge depends on a sampler, as mine usually does, ( with Orchestra and Choirs) Kompakt is the best. Because it allows a lot of details that huge increase the realism and usability of a sampled instrument: like group editing, key switches, mod wheel Fades, Round Robin ...

But even Kontak have some extra features than Kompakt, I think is slow and less easy to use than Kompakt, so I use it just when need some complex edition of a Kompakt instrument. But I don't have even instaled as VST instrument.

The overall winner is...

Despite the table gives to Kontakt the number one...
I prefer.... (sure you guess right): Kompakt 

[IIO]

i didnt know that sampletank has 10 copyprotections and 0 import formats.