Why $600 for Hobart IM230 spool gun and $200 for Miller 211?

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Newbie here.Deciding which machine to purchase and the cost of the spool gun is a significant factor.
Reply:The MM211 uses the spoolmate 100 and the Hobart (at least what I've seen in videos, never owned one) uses what looks to be what was once sold as a Spoolmate 3545. The only difference between these guns is the drive motor and the barrel assembly, everything else is the same parts. You can buy an HD barrel assembly for $100 for the spoolmate 100 which is the same as the 3545 barrel and is rated for 200A 100% duty cycle, but the MM211 only feeds up to 450 ipm. I have a MM211 and maxed out it'll give me 160-165A at 24.6V with 0.035" 4043 wire. supposedly the hd barrel rating is way above the machine duty cycle but when practicing running fillets over and over on 3/16" aluminum I got that heavy barrel pretty hot. Also, miller doesnt sell 3/64" drive rolls for the Spoolmate 100, but they do sell for the 3545, so you could swap those in. Not sure what the drive motor speed will run up to on the hobart though. I saw the Hobart gun i'm talking about being used with that machine in jody's videos on weldingtipsandtricks.com, everything I said above is of course assuming that Miller is still selling that gun with the Ironman, so what I said only applies in that case.
Reply:You're not comparing apples to apples. The Hobart is a higher end spool gun as is the IM230. Generally the Hobart equivalent to a similar Miller is less money so the $600 spool gun would be quite a bit better. If you can afford it go with the Hobart. It's worth the extra money and you have more amps and more duty cycle in addition to being able to use 12" spools of wire for standard welding. Just being able to buy 12" spools instead of 8"(10lb) spools will save you money as it's a lot cheaper per pound.