When I decided to try out quilting for myself, I started out small back in say 2005-6. Viking had just come out with their MegaQuilter 9" on an Inspira frame so I ordered one but went with a Grace Pro frame as I wanted wood, not metal. Anyway, it didn't take long to realize 9" isn't much to work with and after chatting with a few of my quilter buddies, one of the had a PCQ robotics made for smaller machines so I ordered that. Still, 9" isn't much to work with so I ordered their MaxThroat which would move your carriage back and forth up to 17". Only problem with that was it didn't work like it should most of the time and customer service was lousy.........at least for me. Then someone came up with MQR that would take the parts from the PCQ to work with their motor so you didn't lose all you had invested in PCQ. Worked great. Still 9" isn't much to work with. Then my friend heard about a guy that stretched Singer machines as well as Juki 98Q and one of the Brother/Babylocks to 18". WOW, didn't have a Juki but I put my name on his list and waited. While waiting, I looked for a used Juki 98Q. Found one and shortly there after my name came up right when I sold my house and was moving from Florida to Iowa so I shipped it and gave them my sister's address to ship it back when done.
Loved that machine and my MQR worked great with it and I didn't have to change a thing on it. Then I started having issues with the MQR and the guy that created it was moving back to Canada but was working on an upgrade so I gave him money for the upgrade as many of us did. We never heard back from him so we basically donated money for his move back home.
Before the MQR crapped out on me, I'd decided to go bigger on the machine and went with an Innova 26" after testing a bunch out at a quilt show. Had to upgrade the MQR to work with a much larger machine too. Once it started crapping out on me, I searched for another robitic system and found IQ as it was similar to how the MQR worked plus it came with a Thread Break system and you could turn off IQ to baste using channel locks that was connected to it. Haven't had problems that weren't made by operator error and you can do so much with it.
Now I quilt only for myself and when you think how much I've invested in this system thru the years, you'd call me nuts but it's only money, I can't take it with me and it gives me pleasure to make quilts to gift out to others. Innova, as someone else has mentioned has customer service 24/7 and I've used it at all hours. Michael is such a nice guy to help you work thru your issues too. I've never regretted my choices with the Innova and the IQ robotics. Still it's a lot to invest in so your best bet is to go to a quilt show and test all the machines you can to see what fits you and your needs as wel as your pocketbook. I also added a rider to my house insurance to cover everything I have in my sewing room including all the fabrics, threads, machines and whatever you need to recreate.
Sorry this was long.