In my opinion, you can't go wrong with any of the top line transmitters from Futaba, KO, Sanwa or Spektrum. They are all great and for you and me, the fact that one is better than the other will depend only on the grip or the feel you have with the transmitter in your hands. If you have a KO and have no problems with it, I don't see why you should change to another radio. They are all more than capable of doing their job as a high competition transmitter. The Futaba problem you mention was with overheating receivers- a few of my friends had such problems with 3PKS transmitters (one resulting in a pretty ugly accident, with a large scale 1:5 driving into a marshall at full speed), none with the newer 4PKS however. I don't have any experience with Futaba for now, I use a Spektrum DX3R and I am happy with it.