Sigh. Those reps.
I applaud your wisdom in seeking out opinions of those who actually own and use the machines. Their opinions will be less biased. (Notice I didn't say "UNbiased" lol.)
My story:
I have a group of friends who are all longarm owners. We've been meeting monthly for almost 15 years. At first, brand ownership ran the gamut - APQS, Innova, Voyager, Nolting, Gammill, Handiquilter, Tin Lizzie, you name it, someone in the group owned it. The meetings were originally about problem solving and work-arounds. How did you solve this issue, has anyone had troubles with that issue, and so forth. Gradually over the years, almost everyone upgraded to Innova. We have two holdouts - one Gammill and one Handiquilter. Our meetings have also changed from problem solving to show & tell. Nobody has issues with these 3 brands.
When I decided to pull the trigger, here are the factors I used to base my decision on.
- I wanted to be able to service my own machine, because dismantling my frame to take the head off is a p.i.t.a., and so is waiting for a tech to make a house call. (My machine is actually designed for self-service.)
- I wanted 24/7/365 phone support and got it, from both my dealer and from the manufacturer.
- I did not want to buy inexpensive and regret it, and/or having the expense and hassle of upgrading at a later date.
- Word of mouth. As I said, once most of my friends bought Innovas, everyone got happy. That speaks volumes.
One of the smartest things I did before deciding on my longarm was to take a class. I don't think test driving at shows is helpful AT ALL, you just don't get enough experience to make an informed decision. The class was designed to train quilters on how to longarm quilt before renting time on a machine. It was 5 hours long, cost $$$, and was a thousand percent worth it. In the class we learned how to wind a bobbin, how to thread the machine, how to load the quilt on the frame (all options including pinning, zippers, red snappers, etc), how to adjust tension, basic troubleshooting, using rulers, different feet and attachments, etc. We tried out different size heads, which is important from an ergonomic perspective; different frames, which is important from a space-using perspective, and what a setup with robotics entails and can do. We had an excellent instructor who gave us little quilting assignments that had us exploring everything. I found the class made me a well-informed consumer when it came time to "test drive" other brands. I knew what to look for and what to avoid.
IF you want a longarm that you think you might want to add robotics to at some point in the future,
make sure you find out the process for doing that. Some brands require you to trade in or purchase different equipment.
To answer your question in short - HQ would be a better choice, in my opinion. Having said that, my friend who owns a HQ says my 26" Innova rides smoother and is lighter than her 18" HQ. Just thoughts to consider.