Someone mentioned Miele vacuums in this thread and we have one. We won it in a contest actually so it was free! I grew up using dinky cheap vacuum cleaners and thought spending hundreds of dollars on a vacuum was insane. Within minutes of opening the shipping box and turning it on, we realized the quality. We got home late the day it was shipped so we didnt unwrap it until 11 PM. We turned it on for a second just to see how loud it was; we have tenants upstairs and did not want to wake them (im thinking it was going to be loud like normal vacuums). It was unbelievably quiet and had tremendous sucking cleaning power. Ended up cleaning the entire house late at night and nobody woke up. It feels like a finely engineered machine. It cleans better than our old vacuum and doesnt have a powered beater bar. No idea how it cleans the carpets so well on just suction alone but the results speak for themselves. We are definitely sold now. Made in Germany too. We love it.