I have an Elna 7200 Pro Quilter's Dream. I bought it in 2006 for $1399 from a dealer. At the time I bought it, I was wanting to buy a Janome mc6500 but the dealers didn't know much about and weren't very helpful. My Elna was made by Janome for Elna so it is very similar and my dealer was actually using one to make a quilt when I walked in the door.
It has a 9" throat, knee lifter, thread cutter, needle threader, start/stop button, independent bobbin winder and hundreds of stitches including an alphabet or 2. It's much quieter than my other 2 machines.
If I were going to buy another machine today, I would compare the 11" machines--Janome Horizon 7700 and the Elna eXcellence. If those are out of my budget--I would then look at the 9" machines--Janome mc6600, Elna 7300, Babylock Serenade or Quest Plus, and the Viking Sapphire 875/855/835. I can't tell much about the computerized Juki domestic machines but if I had a dealer nearby--I'd include Exceed HZL-F600 & 400 machines in my research.