Everyone has strong opinions. I have a KMG with a 3hp VFD and the larger diameter qdrive wheel. It gives more belt speed when I want it, and increased torque. Tracks dead-on, is relatively quiet (nothing is quiet with that much speed and power, once you put the steel on it at high speed, but the mechanics are quiet).
Heavy, solid, no vibration due to weight and material of tooling arm. Nothing extra to wear out. I have a contact wheel to replace one of the idlers on the flat platen setup, an 8" wheel, and a fork arm with some rollers. Everything I needed.
I called Bader to ask them if they could put a 3hp on one of their machines, and run through an appropriate vfd. I waited a week, no word back though I called 3 times. I bought the machine from Beaumont. It was delivered, and I had it wired and setup, before Bader even returned my call to tell me that they could build what I needed.
kc