I have a EM400 which I think is excellent build. It is very stable, quiet and the polar scope is excellent. It supports my Mewlon 300 which is a heavy OTA just fine
As others have said, you need an I-Phone/I-Pad/PDA/Laptop to control the goto.
IMHO the Tak metal tripod is the best I have seen on the market if you want portable stability.
That being said I would not exactly class a brand new Tak as a "Bang-for-Buck" bargain.
However, there is a good second hand unit on the IIS classiffieds you may want to look at.
You might also want to add the Paramount ME to your list to investigate.
Also I believe that "Bird" uses a Losmandy Titan on a permanent pier for his Jupiter observations/ccd work.