Hmm, $1500 is a very interesting price range.
You are almost in the price bracket for an IDEX machine: Independant Dual Extruder.
The holy grail of dual material extrusion.

for $1600 you can get a t-rex 2+ https://www.formbot3d.com/formbot-la...ize-p0018.html
400x400x500mm print volume. It's an i3 design - but done properly and then some !

Formbot don't do flashy - they just do solid machines made with quality components.
I honestly don't think we've ever had anyone on this forum with a problem with one - so I don't know how good their support is.

Now this is nothing against the x-max, just that if you stretched your budget a little, the trex would be the direction I - personally - would stretch it in :-)

@fred:
One of our makerspace members is considering an Ender 3. I sent this link to him so he can read the opinion of our Super Moderator about the Ender 3!
Just get him to do a forum search for ender 3 problems. If that doesn't convince him - nothing will. And yeah the prusa's are very good kit. Just a shame josef doesn't seem to believe anyone wants to print anything over 8 inches in size.
But the new prusa mini is on the top of my list of machines for beginners.