Although not intimately familier with either bow, i think that often times the difference between the hoyt/matthews bows and some of the more inexpensives bows, like the instinct, is that the instinct says "Bear" on it instead of Hoyt/Matthews. Not that the Hoyt & Matthews of the world aren't great bows, they are, but you pay a premium for the name. So i would shoot them both and unless the hoyt blows you away as being measurably better, id go with the instinct and use the money you save to buy a dozen new arrows.