Replacement options - new machine soon

[Homerec130]

My wife has a Dreamstation and I have a one week old ResMed AirSEnse. My prior machine and now spare is my old PR System One. Couple of things I can say. To me, the AirSense is a lot quieter than the the Dreamstation. I can hear my wife's machine on the other side of the bed, but not hear mine which is right next to me. I also like the smaller start button. My wife had to put a hard cover of sorts (mini shelf) over her unit as the cats would walk across the machine and turn it on or off. Granted, you have to more or less search for the button on the AirSense but the cats can't get to it (at least not yet).

Those are my additions to what has already been said.

Homer

[sansnap]

I appreciate all the input on this thread. It seems odd to obsess about this choice to such a degree but these machines are expensive and I have to live with it for a long while. While I have heartburn about the modem on the resmed machine I also have trouble getting past the form factor of the dreamstation. On balance it seems like each has a detracting feature.

Any bets about durability on these two models?

[Fats Drywaller]

Homerec130: Why not use auto-start and auto-stop ("Smartstart", as Resmed calls it), and ignore the start/stop button?

sansnap: I'm curious about why the form factor of the Dreamstation is unattractive to you. I've seen the photos but haven't used that machine.

[sansnap]

sansnap:  I'm curious about why the form factor of the Dreamstation is unattractive to you.  I've seen the photos but haven't used that machine.

The Dreamstation is quite a bit larger than the Resmed machine.

Resmed: 4.57" x 10.04" x 5.91" H
Dreamstation: 7.6" x 11.7" x  x 3.3" H
Current machine: 6.5" x 10.5" x 4" H

I travel a lot - smaller is better

6.5" x 10.75" x 4"