My hudy lathe was pretty well-aligned out of the box. But, if you move around the blocks or install those optional axial supports you will need to check the alignment again. The "keyed" nature of the blocks will get it close, but you might still be off by about 0.02 to 0.03 inches, which is probably too much.
I'm not sure why, but the cobra lathe just seemed noticeably out of alignment out of the box. It was too coincidental that the same side of each comm seemed to cut deeper on the initial pass. The only thing you'll want to do regardless of which lathe to purchase is to check for coning after your first cut.