I have a 12" Turncrafter that I've been very pleased with. But if your budget extends to $1000, I suggest looking at either the Jet 1221 or the Laguna - both seem to have great reputations. However, you also should understand that the buying a lathe is just opening the door - once you go through that door, the list of stuff that you 'need' becomes very long. So the budget has to allow for a lot more than just the lathe.
The Delta is supposedly a good lathe - and it's been around for a very long time. Unfortunately, Delta (the company) has changed hands numerous times, and the spare parts part of the business has not always been transferred along with the new product part. As a result, in recent years there have been a number of reports of people having difficulty getting replacement parts for Delta lathes.
Another lathe that is supposedly very good is the Nova Comet - and it was on my list of possibles when I was shopping. Recently, someone posted about a problem replacing the belt on a Comet and reported that it was necessary to disassemble the headstock in order to remove the old belt. I don't have any personal experience with Comets, but I will say belts are consumable items that have to be replaced regularly, and if the design of a particular lathe makes that difficult, then that would be a good reason to avoid that model.