Software Instrument(s) or Nord Electro?

Hey guys -- I am a guitarist, so I apologize in advance if I am overly ignorant.

I play a little keys and want to get more and more into piano and keys playing. I will not play out, just at home and recording for fun. I play all kinds of music, from Classical to pretending I am Billy Preston on Don't Let Me Down. I am intrigued by the Nord Electro 3 73, but I want to know if I can just use software instruments like Steinberg's The Grand and the various Native Instruments SW instruments for electric piano etc. I already have a MIDI controller.

I guess the short question is: For someone with my requirements, Is it enough to just have software instruments for the various instruments I want to play? Is the sound quality similar to (or even better) than that of the Nord? Thanks in advance!

I have Electro 3 and have done some A/B comparisons to my software like VB3 and Kontakt. When scrutinized closely, the Electro is punchier and more lively, but to be honest, once dropped back in the mix of a tune, it doesn't seem to be that big a difference.

If you ever want to play live, the Electro will be invaluable. There are dedicated software instruments to equal or better the Electro in almost every category (except its excellent combo organ emulations), but not unless you buy the good stuff.

Thanks for the replies. Can someone provide a small list of those SW instruments that equal or are better than the Electro for the instruments that the Electro does?

piano - Ivory, TruePianos for sampled, Pianoteq for modelled

organ - GSI VB3, accept no substitutes

clav - Scarbee, but Nord is basically just as good

rhodes - Scarbee, but Nord is very close. Plenty of others out there too, but it's a personal taste thing.

CP-80 - GSI has a free modelled one that is not bad, Nord is pretty strong here too.

combo organs - ComboSister makes a not bad generic combo organ, but Nord has specific strong emulations of Farfisa and Vox.

I've always been a hardware fan and still find software doesn't quite offer the same sound for what I do. The Electro 3 has some stunning sounds, the tonewheel organ is incredible and the rhodes and clavs are superb. The piano sound I find is down to taste, I've listened to software pianos and some of them blew me away, although I've never played them in a live situation. For synths and orchestral sounds I think software instruments have come on really well and I would probably be tempted to look at something like Komplete 7. There are lot's of demos around so that would probably be the best guide.