You are so very right, mulesii. I guess I had a one-track radial mind. :) Yes, with three medium frames inserted tangentially you can extract a total of nine mediums at a time. Or course you have to stop twice during the extraction process to flip frames, which may or may not be a big issue to some people. For me, it's not exactly a "plus", but it's not a deal killer, either.
I'm torn between SAF and Maxant. Of note is that Maxant's customer service is second to none (though some may be equal). I don't hear of many people needing to repair extractors, though. It seems most of the major brands work well with few issues. If Maxant had a 100% 9-frame radial attractor I don't think there would be question which I would choose. Having said that, from what I understand tangential extracting will remove more honey that radial extracting...correct me if I'm wrong.
Thanks for the heads'up, mulesii,
Ed