After my Pfaff drove me to drink and my DH literally begged me to go look for a new machine (he was afraid that I was going to toss mine thru the window - lol) I shopped around. Read reviews on patternreview.com and looked at the different websites to check features. Then we went dealer shopping. I test drove Janomes, Brothers, and Vikings, but it was the Babylock that got my attention.
I LOVE my Espire (now Symphonie). LOVELOVELOVE! It is the quietest, best behaved machine I ever had. Once upon a time, I was a fanatic about the Pfaff IDT. I barely miss it any more.
When I was looking for a new machine, I always listed the features I HAD to HAVE and features that would be nice but not deal breakers, then I compared machines based on that list.