I had the espire before I upgraded to my dreamweaver. It is the model right before the symphony, and I loved it. It was a dream to sew on, very nice machine. Most of what I love about it is still one the dreamweaver. Never messed with tension as the AHA does what its says, love the pivoting feature, super easy to thread, never had a problem with the cutter. I made bags quilts with no problem, handled thick layers pretty well. I really enjoyed it. It was my first high end machine, had it for almost 3 years with no problems only went in for yearly cleaning. Whoever bought my lovely machine probably got a good deal