Peckish

Everybody will likely tell you that whatever machine they own is the best. My story is a little different - my little quilt group has been together for over 10 years. In the beginning, we were all over the place where brands are concerned. A couple of Gammill owners, a couple of HQ owners, Tin Lizzie, Nolting, Innova, Voyager, APQS, you name it, we had it. Our meetings were mostly problem solving: "How did you deal with this issue" and "What should I do to solve this problem", etc. Gradually most of us switched over to Innovas, we have 2 holdouts; one Gammill owner and one Handiquilter owner. And our meetings have gone from problem-solving to show-and-tell. I love my Innova.
The best thing I ever did before buying my Innova was take a 5-hour "beginning longarm" class from my dealer. It was designed to teach people the how to's before they rented time to quilt their tops on the longarm, but it was absolutely invaluable for helping me make my decision. We learned how to load a quilt, different ways of attaching backing and top to the frame, how to fill a bobbin, how to test and adjust tension on both upper and bobbin threads, and how to trouble-shoot issues related to loading, etc. Then we quilted, and our instructor encouraged and challenged us with various patterns, fills, etc. We got to try out the various sizes of machines, experiment with the robotics, and our instructor had about 50+ different rulers on hand for us to play with. It was an EXCELLENT class, and if your Innova dealer offers one, I cannot recommend enrolling highly enough.
Innovas are built so you can easily perform all service or repairs yourself, they have top-notch 24/7/365 customer service, yes even on holidays. This is very important if you plan on quilting for hire. I know a lot of professional quilters who can't afford or are too busy to be down for more than a day or two. Innova's customer service will walk you through every single step of how to replace the dohicky right next to the thingamajig.