I have my dreamweaver which has all the features of the aria and I adore everything about it, the muvit foot which is dualfeed with differential quite different from the accufeed of the 7700, I love the pivoting function which I think the janome doesn't have, I love the AHA feature of keeping stitch tension even. I also like the pen and laser but I do not think these 2 features are avalaible on the aria. The harp size is about the same on both machine. I would be leaning towards the babylock if it were me . Both machines are nice but if I were going to get a janome it would be the 9900 as it has more features and less complaints overally but the aria can sew thicker materials than the janome to me you can sew over 10 layers with the muvit foot, no baulking, perfect stitches which is what makes the machine so versatile is that same foot can handle thin and difficult fabrics like minky with ease and precision. Also for garment sewing I just sewed a very stretchy knit, not the easiest to sew, no walking foot, no muvit foot, even used a decorative stitch and it sewed perfectly with just my standard zigzag foot. so the regular foot sews really difficult fabrics well. Even though the machine is geared towards quilters there are many features that also make it great for garment and heavy duty sewing as well