I did a lot of research online before I bought the one I have now. I started with a second hand table top frame and used one of my domestic machines to start. That made me fall in love with frame quilting. I don't have the money to have others quilt my tops and I wasn't happy with all of my results when I pulled and pushed the sandwich through my machine on the table. I now have an older Homesteader machine that I bought used. These are a hybrid machine that the company stretches. The service is great and they are so easy to deal with. The 2 things I looked for was customer service and price and this company has both. The link for the Homesteader is:
http://www.thequiltingsolution.com/ they have a group on Yahoo! at
http://groups(dot)yahoo(dot)com/group/HomesteaderQuilting/
replace the (dot) with a dot. After I received my machine I needed a part and it was sent before I sent them a check and when I got the parts there was bobbins, bobbin case and bobbin hook in the box that I didn't purchase. They were just a thank you! Not sure if they do that with all of their customers, but it sure was nice for me. No I am not affiliated with this company, just a very, very happy customer.
Good luck on your search. I know we all look for different things when it comes to our toys and thankfully there is just as many machines out there to make all of us happy.