Is this a mid-arm on a frame, or a sit-down machine? If it's a sit-down, and if your quilt is large, it should be easier and faster to maneuver your quilt through the machine with the larger throat and probably a larger bed. Whether it's appreciably faster or not depends mostly on the size of the quilt. I don't think there should be much of a learning curve. If it's a frame, then it's not that much different than using the longarm, and is also faster than either the DSM or the sit-down mid-arm, but there is more of a learning curve. I think part of this depends on how proficient you are with your DSM, and how complicated your quilting design is.