Excellent mixer, esp when combined with the 3qt bowl and combi-whip

The mixer is a beast. The 575W motor has breezed through everything I have thrown at it, including many batches of rather stiff bread dough. The soft-start is nice, but I am not sure how useful it truly is. Even with the soft-start, the speed ramps up quickly, so I find myself stepping through the speeds manually anyway.

While the mixer is far from silent, it isn't nearly as noisy as I thought it was going to be. I have heard smaller, cheaper stand mixers that have made much more noise.

I purchased this after seeing that the Copper Pearl color was being discontinued and Dillards had them on clearance for $199.99. (thanks fatwallet :) ) I paid more than that for my Artisan a few years back.

If this is your sole mixer, I highly recommend getting the 3qt bowl and combi-whip accessory (KN3CW). Without it, you're stuck with a mixer that does large volume recipes wonderfully, but exhibits abysmal performance on smaller quantities. You won't regret it. In addition to allowing this beast to mix small volumes, the combi-whip does a very respectable job of cutting pastry doughs or crumble/crisp toppings--something that neither the regular whisk or paddle did for me.