Totally worth the money! I'm reviewing a 34mm x 2.5 TPI for an 18" home Chinese brand bandsaw. An expensive blade but just fantastic:
> Runs very true, the welding join results in little, if any irregular tracking of the blade. [Some bades I have make a distinctive noise as they rotate, much like a car tyre with a lump on it. This blade is almost the same noise as it travels around the bandsaw wheels.]
> It is devishly sharp and hence cuts like a dream. Re-sawing some Wenge resulted in a near saw-bench quality of cut; very little uneven tooth marks meaning much less sandiing meaning less wastage of wood.
> [I assume] extended life.
If you have ever contemplated how much better, if at all, spending the extra money is, my anwer is: it's totally worth it.