Component Modeled vs Waveform Modeled Plug-ins

[psykostx]

As we all know, a component modeled plugin has each electronic compnonent's behavior modeled into software, while a waveform modeled plugin uses carefully measured test signals and aims to simulate them.

So does anyone have a preference or can anyone tell the difference by ear? It would seem that unless Steven Hawkings was providing the physics for component modeled plugs that waveform models should reign supreme. Couldn't you just simplify all the math of the electronic circuit into one simple formula? Seems to me the hard part about programming plugins is the speedy manifulation of binary data...bypassing the slow stock VST and HAL functions... its almost like steinberg wants VST developers to design crap unless you give them all of your potential earnings for full access to their development resources. hell, there isn't even a book to go along with the SDK documentation...but I digress...seems to be my thing tonight...