I am a Janome fan, all my machines are Janome's. I would err on the side of caution. This is a machine that uses embroidery cards and they are hard and expensive to come by. I talked to my repair guy and he says that parts are very hard to come by for that machine as it is older. You can by the hardware and software to put your images on cards but that is also expensive. I have a friend who bought the 8000 3 years ago and still can't find 3 parts she needs to use it for embroidery. Janomes have great stitches and are known workhorses. It might be better to take your money and put it towards a newer/used machine.