mick wrote:

I guess I'm wondering if the better sliders are "really" good or if
there is a trade-off on cut quality. I'm not doing brain surgery or
anything but if I'm going to drop $500.00 on a saw i would like to be
confident that I am getting at least as good a saw as I have
already...

By their nature, it's going to be harder to get a slider to be as
dead-nuts accurate as a simple CMS. There are simply more moving parts.

On a better slider the play will be less, but generally you're still
going to be able to deflect the blade side to side slightly at one
extreme of travel or the other. This shouldn't impact 90-degree cuts
much, but may come into play on miters.

Chris