I've raised English Angoras for the last forty years, I also have Satin Angoras. I've dabbled in other angora breeds, but the English and Satin have my heart. You mentioned Chinese Angora, and your English fiber not having the loft of the commercial angora yarn. There's a reason for that, and the two are interrelated. Over 90% of all commercial angora is being produced in China, and they are breeding for that loft, so they can use the least amount of angora in a blended yarn, and still have it look fuzzy. How to accomplish that? The answer is really, really coarse guard hairs that will stand out of the yarn. Great halo, horrible for the softness. The down feels great in your hand, but the hairy halo will prickle your neck.
My satin angora fiber is as low as only 9 microns, tiny fiber, so, so soft. My English are in the 10-12 micron range mostly, I aim for guard hairs that are fairly close in diameter to the fiber, for the softness factor, more important to me than spike. But, according to research papers put out by China, they are looking for angora with guard hairs in the 40+ micron range. Yikes! That's like the coarsest sheep wool. So, if your yarn has less spike than commercial yarn, I'll say hallelujah! As far as I know, no one is importing these Chinese Angoras into the U.S. for breeding. The Chinese bred meat-type rabbits into their local angoras, for more bristle fiber, and then crossed in German Angora for production. I would think if production was your aim, just go for actual Germans, skip the bristle.
When I test-spun fiber from each of the Angora breeds, the German spun the easiest, as it was the most uniform in length, and being sheared was in aligned locks. That one surprised me, as I had long heard of the horrors of sheared angora (even though I raised sheep and sheared their fiber.) I now realize the problem was in shearing rabbits with multiple layered coats that also shed. My old-fashioned English usually have 2-3 distinct coats at any given time. The mature coat sheds out at 3-6" in length, with another coat at about half that length underneath, and often a third emerging at skin level. When you shear this type of rabbit, you get the lovely mature coat, but also a shorter (often only an inch and a half long) coat within that, and worse yet, the tips of the emerging coat. All those little short fibers then shed out of the spun yarn as it fuzzes, giving angora yarn the bad reputation for shedding. The base of the shedding fiber is also left on the rabbit, to either shed out or mat. None of this applies to non-shedding rabbits, of whatever breed. As long as you're careful when shearing, put only the prime fiber (generally a uniform 3" long) into the fiber bag/box, and don't try to 'tidy up' the rabbit until AFTER the good fleece has been carefully removed from the area, you should have great yarn without a shedding issue (unless you have weak tips on your awn fibers, that's another issue entirely).
If softness is your goal, you can't beat Satin, with English a close second. If personality is your goal, you can't beat English. If you like the halo, richer color, and easy care, French may be your choice; in my spinning tests, French had the highest spike (halo, loft, fuzziness). If you want production, you can't beat German, they can produce multiple POUNDS of fiber per rabbit per year, with little care. If you like higher production, but want to show, Giants are probably your choice (Germans are judged on production, not show, and are not sanctioned by ARBA for showing.). If you hate shearing, Giants, Germans, and the Betty Chu show line of English are NOT for you. However, if you love showing, my old-fashioned molting English would not be a good choice, as there is only a tiny window of time between full show coat, and molting. If space is an issue, you might prefer the little Jersey Wooly or American Fuzzy Lop instead. I've spun both, they work fine (and the Fuzzy Lops have a lot of personality.) Teddywidder is another angora-type dwarf that is recently being developed. I haven't spun any of that fiber yet.
However, there is often more variation within a breed, as between the breeds. I know a woman who bred the most amazing French rabbits. Nice personality, lots of fiber, easy care, and yet soft, not hairy. Great show stock, too. I've had crabby English, Satins that had coats so cottony they never produced a usable coat (just matted), and German crosses that molted. I used to have to clip off the baby coats off of my English, as they just matted up with all the siblings playing all over each other. Now, I select breeding stock from the rabbits that produce usable fiber in their baby coat--with as little matting as possible. Soft, not hairy, is a priority, but so is stock that doesn't need all that grooming to produce good fiber.
I also feed whole grains and local hay, not pellets, so I'm working on Angoras that can do well under those conditions. It seems to be much more of a challenge for the Satin Angoras with their meat conformation than the English, but we're working on it. I like the one person who quoted someone else (sorry, I don't know the original author), "Breed to the feed." Select rabbits that do well under your circumstances, whatever that may be.
No matter what breed you choose, eventually, your stock is going to reflect your personal tastes, as you select breeding stock that meets your standards. It may be dual purpose, or temperament, fiber texture, total weight of fiber production, ease of shearing or plucking, length, show wins, color, size. . .what you select for is up to you, and your strain of Angora will be one unique to you.
