We had an expensive one to start with (based on our in-laws had that kind and it worked great for them), but had some issues with it after it was out of warranty and had issues getting someone to come and service it so I bought a cheapie one from home depot in the GE brand and it has worked better than the expensive one we had. It was super easy to install (I did it myself) and easy to use as well and the water is the same as it was with the other unit. It also easily allows me to adjust the hardness settings with a few buttons which has been immensely helpful as our water seems to vary a lot in hardness. I think it is because we have rural water and they will switch the wells it comes from.

If you think there's silt or whatever in water, filter it before it gets to the softener. It's less stuff to gum up the works. I've been on 3 different water softening systems in last 15 years. I'm convinced that a quality unit that can be repaired isn't much more initial cost than a cheap one, so buy a name brand. I'm also convinced that there are companies that greatly inflate their initial and maintenance costs because people think water softening is like alchemy. I'd look for a small local company with reasonable prices.