I got a Electrolux Nimble from Costco when they were on sale a while back for $140. They can otherwise be had for around $200 if you look.
It's supposed to be in the "Dyson" class and from what little I've used it so far, I don't doubt it.
The day I bought it, I vacuumed nearly my whole house with my old Hover Windtunnel that I thought was pretty decent right up until the motor went up in smoke.
The wife and I happened to be heading to Costco right after anyway and saw the Nimble on sale and after doing some in-store quick research online from our phones and seeing it had favorable reviews overall, we bought it.
Got it home and reran it over the house I had just vacuumed earlier that day and HOLY SHIT! It was like I pulled a cats weight in hair out of the rugs TWICE! Not even joking. All said, I filled the canister up 3 times in that initial vacuuming.
Couldn't get over it.
Now it still pulls up stuff but nothing like that initial time.
Well worth the money, even at $200 IMO.
Amazon has it for $200 shipped
http://www.amazon.com/Electrolux-Nim.../dp/B004GUFWBM