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The Epic was out of our price range too but we made the mistake (I don't think of it like that now),of jumping in the Epic just for fun. Then for even more fun, we listened to the Soundsations ...Long story short, between kids and a husband who thought we should just go ahead since we would probably only do this once....we got the Epic and the sound system. We all agreed however that the 530 would be our choice if Mom couldn't find the financing somewhere...Marquis helped me with that and within the year, I was able to come up with the difference. I am not encouraging you to do this. I admire anyone who sets a budget and sticks to it. Good luck.
nsavarirayan: The main difference between the two lines is going to be bells and whistles type of features. For instance floating remotes, colored spa & waterfall lighting, in-home monitor, larger LCD control in the spa, ect. The Epic is going to be a little bit more therapy oriented but the power of the U530 is very comparable. 320 gallons per minute vs. 290 gallons per minute. The warranty is 2 years less in the everyday living line that the U530 is in. The construction and quality is exactly the same except on the base. The Marquis luxury line uses a plastic high-impact acrylic base whereas the everyday line uses a polysheet bottom. The filtration is exactly the same and water management is exactly the same. The SmartClean automatic clean up cycle is exactly the same. I have actually had people wet test the two and prefer the U530. Both are very comfortable, I would schedule a time to wet test.