$400 for a vaccum - do I dare?

I have a love/hate relationship with our current vacuum:

• Love: I absolutely hate sweeping and messing around with dust pans and brooms, so I'm glad the vacuum allows me to just glide it around the floor and effortlessly pick up all the dust and dirt.


• Hate: It is loud! Very, very loud! Sean says that he can hear it clearly all the way down our building's hallway with our door closed. Every time I vacuum, I'm in fear that our downstairs or next-door-neighbor will come bursting through the door with a sledgehammer and smash our vacuum.

Regardless of whether I'm going deaf from the vacuum, it seemed rather silly to spend money to buy a new vacuum when our current one works perfectly fine. This past weekend, our vacuum experience a boo boo. It appears that the hose doesn't really work anymore. I mean, I guess we could try to fix it or we can go buy a new one! :)

I've been doing a little bit of research and I found our next vacuum - the Dyson Slim. It's small (perfect for a Manhattan apartment); it has nearly perfect reviews from every site (people are commenting that they are starting to love vacuuming because of the Slim). The only hiccup is that it is $400. Yikes! The last time I purchased a vacuum, I walked into Walmart and spent $89. Can this Dyson Slim be four times as good?!?!