This Mixer makes good treats

This is an outstanding mixer. I don't think it's terribly loud, as I have seen in other reviews. The design may have changed or it could just be that I mill my own flour in an impact mill, and the mixer seems very quiet compared to the mill! I also have 4 children, so I'm fairly desensitized to noise. I got the mixer primarily for making bread. It is rated for 14 cups of all-purpose flour, but the manual says to only use 8 cups of whole-grain flour (2 loaves). I make 2 loaves of whole-grain bread at least once a week, usually twice. The spiral dough hook does an excellent job of kneading, and the mixer has plenty of power to handle the whole-grain dough. Just 8 minutes of kneading develpes the gluten so well, that I only have to raise the dough for 30 minutes in the bread pans and then bake it, and we end up with delicious, light, fluffy bread. I can make bread in less than an hour and a half, including the time for kneading, rising and baking. (We live over 7500 feet in altitude, and I have seen recipes that call for up to 3 rises of yeast bread at high altitude, but that is absolutely not necessary.) I used to use a bread machine, and produced many "bread bricks" with it. Since I got the KitchenAid, the bread machine has been retired. We have mostly just made bread, but also have used it for cake, gingerbread, and whipped cream. It had no problem with any of those, as I expected. There is one major design flaw, in my children's opinions, and we discovered it when 2 of them were helping me make a birthday cake. They were very distressed when they realized there was only one beater to lick! That is our only complaint so far. We also purchased the meat grinder and used it to grind at least 30 pounds of beef, elk, and turkey into burger. The mixer had plenty of power to be up to the task. I am very pleased with the performance of this mixer and don't think anyone would regret purchasing it.