I live in Delaware and purchased my Innova in 2011 at the Lancaster AQS Show after trying every longarm machine in the place several times over a few days.
As part of my purchase I was offered a 3-day class from Teryl and I went out to St. George and took advantage of this. Great class and I highly recommend you take her classes. Obviously being in Delaware I couldn't turn to Let's Quilt for service and Michael and alll the folks at Innova have been there whenever I have needed help. This help has been 24/7, and yes, I have even used it at 2am on a Sunday morning. When I purchased I was told about Innova's 24/7 customer service and it was the icing on the cake so to speak that sealed the deal. Amazing knowledgeable help.
But what attracted me to step into the Innova booth was its solid construction---I'm an engineer. The frame is solid. As I tried other machines I couldn't get over their vibration and the flimsy frame construction. Innova's frame is solid. I found the machine itself to be light-weight and easy to move. I have a 26" and even with the larger machine, it's easy to move.
The Innova permits me to any use thread I want, and I could quilt in any direction while maintaining great thread tension. At two competitor booths the sales folks *yelled* at me to 'GO SLOW in that CURVE' so that the thread tension would be OK. I was *yelled* at to slow down as I moved from right-to-left too. I was also advised as to what threads worked best in *their* machine. I don't need to do that with my Innova, I just quilt in any direction I want, with any thread I want.
And Innova requires us to oil only the bobbin so there isn't any fear of oil dripping onto our lovely quilt top.
I also purchased the autopilot because I quilt for others. It does what I need it to do. I didn't look at other computer systems so I don't know if there are features present or missing that other systems have.
My only regret is that I didn't purchase an Innova years ago.
26" Jeannie w/ AP & LS