So the Bambu labs A1 looks like the perfect starting point.
One problem, it uses proprietary firmware and software, I’m a big advocate for owning the things you buy, and not supporting companies that don’t allow you to do that as much as I reasonably can. So yea I can’t buy Bambu.
The Creality SparkX i7 seems nice, it looks like a straight up clone of the A1
https://store.creality.com/eu/products/sparkx-i7-3d-printer
I’ve heard a lot of people complain about Creality though, so unsure. I’m a bit stuck and getting decision fatigue.
My budget is ~500 Euro.
Help.
Qidi Q2 can offer magnificent value if you want something slightly bigger. It runs on open-source Klipper.
That’s the one on my list. I’ve been looking at the snapmaker U1, the Sovol SV08, and the Q2/Q2C. For a replacement for bambu, I think the Q2 fits that profile best.
SV08 is atractive for large prints but it’s huge and doesn’t have an enclosure. The large size can become cumbersome in a smaller house and it’s very rarely needed.
Snapmaker is attractive for multi-color or multi-material prints but those aren’t that common and it’s also much more expensive.
For a first printer the Q2 is probably good. You can run it fully locally without the Qidi cloud as well which is a big plus. Though accessing it outside of your home network would require a reverse proxy or something like Tailscale to connect to your home network first. (But you can use Qidi cloud if you wish)