Originally Posted by justwannaquilt
Neither I bought (or rather my husband bought me as a "surprise") the Brother 1500, which as MadQuilter said is the same machine as the Pfaff GrandQuilter just different badges. It is not as cheap as the Janome, but not as expensive as the Juki. It comes with the thread cutter and the needle down button like the Juki. You can drop the feed dogs and it has the even feed pin. The Janome can not drop the feed dogs you have to use a darning plate to FMQ. The Brother also comes with the knee lifter and the extension table like the Juki, the Janome doesn't and I don't think you can even buy the table for it anymore. Unless you get a full size table to set it in.
I love my machine and would not choose anything different!
Good luck in choosing!
Note: The Brother 1500 is NOT the same machine as the Janome/Viking/Pfaff. The Brother is a clone of the JUKI machine. I have the Viking MQ and it has speed control, thread cutter, needle up/down, the knee lift & ext. table. So does the Pfaff. I bought my VMQ about 3 yrs ago and it's been super. :)