I did a some more research after all the great suggestions people contributed and decided to go ahead and get the Dyson. Someone on Epinions mentioned that Costco had a good price on them and they were quite right – $100 less than the prices I saw elsewhere. The only downside is the Costco model has really ugly colors. 🙂

I just vacuumed the living room and was extremely impressed at the crap it sucked up and at the way the carpet looked afterward. It’s also a lot less noisy than our previous model (a Dirt Devil bagless). Thanks everyone for the great input. I don’t have a way of comparing with other brands, but my initial impressions of the Dyson are excellent.