Rating : - Spectacular
This is so good that a friend whose child suffers from severe asthma [and who has an Oreck air filter that cost about $800--- which broke down as soon as the warranty expired], could actually sense how much cleaner the air was when she was in the vicinity of the Austin and asked me where she could buy one. She asked even though I have had this for nearly 10 years [one filter change so far, by the calendar, not because I sensed it stop working].

I can't recommend it strongly enough.

While it is a bit noisy, it's an even background noise, not at all irritating [and I am a real noise crank]; in fact when my neighbors have a party [their dining room wall is my bedroom wall], the hum actually is an added bonus and helps me to fall sleep.

I should mention that when the wind shifted one night after 9/11 here in NY I got a heavy dose of the smoke cloud and so could barely breath when I arrived home; I closed myself in the bedroom, turned on the Austin filter, and was fine.