What I was saying was, everybody needs an ACR122U. It’s far from perfect, but it does a lot of things and works with a lot of software for the price. And it’s kind of the de-facto reference to compare read range performances. For 30 smackers or whatever it costs, you can’t go wrong.
After that, if you need better or more specialized hardware, you can always get another reader that suits your need better. But at least having gained the experience getting the ACS going with various stacks, libraries and software, you’ll know what to look for in another reader.
I have 6 or 7 ACR122Us here and I hardly ever use a single one of them anymore, as I have better hardware, but I’m glad I have them.