What is the best home shop mill?

I am thinking about buying a cnc mill and I am not sure which one to
get. I want to make aluminum and maybe some steel gun parts. I also
do sculpture and jewelry work. So I think I would need on with a 4th
Axis. What is the most polpular unit for these type of applications.
I was looking at the Maxnc CL series. They seemed fairy reasonable in
price. but some say the steppers are not the best is this true? what
also would be some good software for 4th axis milling and .dxf file
conversion. I have a computer background but am totally new to CNC.
Could some one open my eyes and set me on a good path.

Thanks :)