Thank you all for the replies. Although I am still hoping for you to rank brands since it would really help me make a decision, your answers helped me narrow things down a bit, but I'm not exactly done searching... I have 28 days :P before the show prices disappear in the case of three vendors.
I'll post in another thread about a machine for which I didn't find reviews, not even at the patterreview.com site since it's doesn't apply to the current subject. :)