I've only owned Cobra lathes so far, and I have absolutely no complaints with them. The Orion lathe looks VERY nice as well, if I were to replace my current Cobra lathe, I'd go with either the Orion or Hudy.
One thing to watch out for... If you buy a lathe that has the option of bearings or v blocks to hold the armature, choose the V-blocks. Bearings will be okay for a while, but over time, wear and any particles that find there way into the bearings will result in degradation of the cutting quality. V-blocks don't have this problem.
Trips