I was advised by my repair man not to buy online as apparantly some of the machines on line are 'grey' machines this means that they are not necessarily recommended by the manaufacturer for sale in your countly but could be ones intended for import to the far east. This means that a reputable dealer will not uphold the warrantly and will not service or repair your machine under warrantly. Not sure about US but in UK although you buy from Amazan it is actually from some of the companies who sell on Amazon Marketplace and not necessarily Amazon. The way he explained it to me was like buying a car overseas and then shipping it to the UK as the UK dealers will not service or cover any repairs under warranty as the warranty is classed as invalid. I am not sure if this will apply to you guys in the US but as you are talkign about spending a lot of money on a machine it may be worth considering.