Let's start off with the good things.Pros:1) I received this machine in a fairly timely fashion, it arrived within 2 weeks of ordering.2) I purchased 300lbs of weight at the same time as this machine and I myself am 285lbs and the machine handles all of the weight without any bowing or bending so I feel confident it will last for a long time.3) There are a ton of different exercises that you can accomplish with this machine and not be stuck in the same old routine having the option to switch from one workout regime to a new one entirely the next week to keep your body guessing and build muscle.4) I was able to assemble this machine by myself with no additional help needed, everything comes nicely packaged and broken down so that you can move it piece by piece to wherever you wish the final location to be.5) It's a nice looking machine and as a 6' tall man I can attest that it is tall enough and has enough range of motion to do most overhead workouts i.e. military press and incline bench.Now for the negativesCons:1) The instructions are not very user friendly, as I said I was able to assemble this machine myself but the instructions will just show you a drawing with a bunch of things that need to be assembled and pictures of the parts but they do not tell you what the parts look like ( i.e. a black rubber grommet ). They also do not tell you in which order to assemble all of the pieces on one drawing so there were several times I would install something only to realize another part of the same drawing had to be done first and had to disassemble the same thing over again. From start to finish it took me about 8 hours to build, had the instructions been more clear as well as all of the pieces labeled better it could have gone much faster.2) The range of motion for some workouts is not the best. They do send a lat pull down bar for the cable system but as a 6' tall man my arms never fully extend up to get a full range of motion. Also, when doing preacher curls the knee cushions hit my elbows before I can curl the weight all the way to the top. If your trying to use the low cable for curls there is not enough height in the pull so you have to be sitting on the bench. You can adjust all of your workouts but it could be better if the machine were redesigned a bit. Overall I'm mostly happy with it though.3) The sliding weight rack for the cable system does not have any roller bearings of any sort so the weight has to be even on either side of the bar or it will twist and be useless. That is actually fairly annoying as an example, I want to do 55lbs curls, I put a 45lbs plate on one side and a 10lbs weight on the other and it won't work right so instead of using two plates I have to put a 25lbs plate and 2.5lbs plate on each side. It seems menial but it's annoying and could be really easy to resolve if they just built that slider with ball bearings to roll up and down the bar.4) The powder coating was already chipped and flaked off in some areas of the machine, I really expected a much better quality product instead of plastic caps and cheap paint for this price.So overall, yes I'm happy with the machine as I can do a lot of different workouts. I don't like the 1 to 5 scale I would rather rate it on a 1 to 10 scale at a 6 cause I'm happy but a 4 of five makes it seem great and I didn't feel a 3 out of five did enough justice for the amount of workouts that can be done with this machine. As far as recommending this machine to others, I would neither recommend or condemn it, I would simply tell them what I found and let them choose, due to the build quality and materials used it seems cheap for such an expensive machine so I wouldn't recommend but because of the variety of workouts that can be done I would therefore I'm right down the middle with it.Hope this helps some of you.Update:6 months into having the home gym I have been happy with my purchase overall, I always did enjoy weight lifting but could never find the time to go to the gym working long hours everyday so having this at home is perfect since I don't have to go anywhere to workout. I've been lifting consistently 4 days a week for 6 months now and putting this machine to the test durability wise and mechanically and I've learned some more about the pro's and con's of this machine.Pro's:In 6 months of lifting it had been my objective to bulk so I've been steadily adding more and more weight to my workouts and have not lost that much myself, just ten pounds. I'm currently 275, I bench 245lbs for my last set of ten on standard bench press, I deadlift 365lbs, I squat 330lbs so overall you can see I have put A LOT of strain on this machine and it has met my requirements.Con's:I've since learned that it is actually not quite tall enough, at 6' tall I feel this machine could use about an additional 6" of height to get full range of motion in certain exercises but it does work well enough to get a good lift in.I really wish they had used metal sleeves for the 2" end caps to make it Olympic weight plate suitable. The plastic they send with the machine is constantly being torn and cut up by the weights and I know eventually it'll cut all the way through or break. Plus if you tighten the set screw enough so the plastic won't slide then it bows the plastic into an egg shape and makes it difficult to put on and take off the weights.Some of the machine parts are a safety hazard I.E. the leg / preacher curl attachment to the bench. You cannot tighten the cap screws all the way, you have to leave them loose enough that they do not bind against the bench and create problems with the range of motion but they do not include any lock tite with the machine. I noticed overtime that those screws as well as the ones that hold the back piece of the bench to the seat piece would loosen and begin to back out. I was cognizant of this and had enough foresight to take them out, buy some lock tite and screw them back together and let the lock tite set before further use which has stopped them from loosening anymore. This is a huge safety risk however because for example, let's say I'm using the bench to do leg extensions one day and the screws back out while I'm at the top of the extension, then I have all of that weight falling straight down onto my kneecaps and potentially breaking my legs. Or even worse let's say I'm in the middle of a bench press set and the screws back out of the back rest on the bench and I fall backward and drop the weight on myself. This could result in death, being completely literal, do yourself a favor and buy some lock tite and if you're reading this Marcy Pro, do yourselves a favor and add some lock tite to the package and put it in the instructions.I'm taking a star away and giving this machine a 3 star review, for the price paid I think this is a very cheap quality machine and could be so much better at $1,200.I still will give it 3 stars because I have enjoyed this machine and though I haven't lost much weight i have been shifting my weight and bulking, building muscle and burning fat as has been my goal, I'll include some before and after pics from 6 months ago to now so you can see this machine will work.