slk350, you and I are in the same spot. I would say that I'm not a beginner, but also wouldn't call myself an expert... I'd say 'seasoned beginner'. I've been quilting for several years and have until now been a kitchen table quilter. We put an addition onto our home where we built a new dining room and that quickly got taken over by my fold out quilting and cutting tables. : ) So this spring we are exploring the option to have someone come in and re-finish the basement to make a sewing/quilting studio for me and with that my long time dream of getting a machine quilting frame. And even though I will be able to design the space the size and cost of quilt frames makes what to purchase a hard decision. I've gone to several quilt shops and gotten opinions and checked out the frames that they sell. Mostly it seems that they want to sell me whatever they have in the shop and it makes me not feel like I am getting honest feedback. They are mostly recommending the Grace Majestic Frame or the Baby Lock Pearle with a Crown Jewel machine.. which I'm sure are SO nice to have but with a $9500 price tag is out of my reach and you need 12 feet to set them up. I'm looking at the same combo that you are, the Hinterberg stretch with the refurbished 17" long arm Voyager. I called the company [(319) 378-0999] and spoke to a very helpful man named Lance. He really put my mind at ease and had a lot of answers to my many questions. Sounds like a company that stands behind their product. Also, the "refurbished" designation makes you think it was a broken machine that got fixed to be sold. That's not it at all. They are trade-ins that are reconditioned to work like new. I'm strongly leaning towards that combo package for $3999 at that price I don't really think you can go wrong.