I assembled and used a Barth when we set up the window shop in Bhutan. And have had the Soukup press in my shop for a couple months now. Disclaimer- I am part owner in Soukup NA but will try to give a honest evaluation of both.
The Soukup is heavy duty industrial and will take up more room for height. It¡¯s not something you would ever put on wheels. Also a bit of a chore to move into a shop. It comes with special lifting devices that allow unloading and moving with a forklift. The squaring beam and all the clamps are shipped horizontally on the back of the unit. These are heavy and you will need a forklift or overhead hoist to assemble on to the clamp. I could not drive the forklift to where it¡¯s located in my shop and a bit of a chore to move with 2 palet jacks.
The Barth can be assembled without a forklift or hoist but squaring it up is a bit of a chore. I don¡¯t know if they stay in square if you roll it around much. The hand hydraulic clamps on the Barth are ok for windows but weak on entry doors. The Barth though would be better for cabinet doors as it¡¯s easy to crush these on a hydraulic press. I have the grid table on mine that should be good for small work. I¡¯m using the Soukup press a lot for edge gluing and the flatener works well for this. I think Barth has a similar option. I¡¯m actually selling my JLT panel clamp because I don¡¯t see a need for it anymore. One thing both of these presses would work for is assembling dovetail drawers. We did this all the time on the Italpress. I do have the Italpress for sale if anyone is interested. Not quite as versatile as the Barth or Soukup but very powerful especially for entry doors.
I would say if you have room in the shop and means to unload it the Soukup is a better deal. I see the Barth more for a home shop or artisan shop that is limited for space. Here¡¯s a few photos from the last couple months.
