I have a sapphire 870 and I love it. I went from a relatively basic Brother machine to this so the bells and whistles were all new to me. My favourite features are the thread cutter, the needle down, the sensor system thingie and of course the lovely big throat. The only problem I've had with it is in FM quilting where the top thread keeps breaking but I think this is probably operator error mostly!!!
I don't know what the prices are like in the US (I'm in Ireland) but I paid a lot less than $2200 for mine and that was nearly a year ago. Since then the new Diamond has come out so I'd imagine they'd be even more inclined to deal with you?
Best of luck with your decision.