Over the pass few decades, my wife has used several different makes of blenders (KitchenAid, Ninja, Cuisinart, Black and Decker).  While some functioned better than others, they all suffered weaknesses that rendered them near useless after a couple of years and never did perform top notch in primary functions such as making smoothies.  And all of them had plastic gears where metal is a necessity for longevity, and sub-powered.  This is where the Breville Super Q excells.  It has tremendous power and gears (drive system) that are made of metal, so should be no issues of stripped gears like we got on the plastic geared blenders.  Also, the noise suppression technology does a good job of quietening this powerful 1800 watt blender.  

Bottom line:  Yes, it is expensive.  However, you really do get what you pay for in quality.  I expect this blender will the last one I will need to buy.  My wife is thrilled with it and has been using it several times a week.