[YoshL]

smx are like >1k lmao
pdp are garbage don't touch them
impulse is coming out who knows when but i'm literally waiting for them because i've played on a prototype and it was probably better than any arcade pad i've played on
http://maty-taneczne.pl/ - might be your best bet if they ship to the US (i haven't checked) i know a bunch of people who have one of these and say that it's really fucking good quality. even with some egregious shipping costs, this could potentially cost less than a pdp but still be by far the best choice for an intermediary

edit:

checked the polish pads, they do ship to the US, and even though shipping is like 100 extra euros (base price ~150 euros), it's like literally the same price as a PDP but like infinite times the quality