John,
I was looking at the Nova 1624 also and made a trip to the local Woodcraft to take a hands on look at one.. they didn't have any in stock and the manager's wife told me she has sold only one all last year and the fellow wound up bringing it back.. seems he had some kind of problem with breaking motor shafts... one of the reps at the WC said it was a direct drive motor and he didn't know what the fellow was trying to turn, be he personally (the rep) wasn't fond of the direct drives... I like everything I read about it, but didn't like the negatives I got from Woodcraft.. even though they offered to order one for me if I wanted it.. I wound up getting the Jet 1442. I turn quite a few peppermills and just finisted 7 tonight.
All that aside, I don't have it now, but if you look up the Nova, they have a couple of articles where it was evaluated by one of the wood magazines and actually got good reviews.
I was impatient and also got my Jet at the same price as the Nova... they are on sale now until the end of March at 10% off.