I personally own both a Juki (which is a work horse) but only sews forwards & reverse. It has no bells & whistles but work it does. It will sew 10 layers of denim without a problem. I bought it because the throat area was bigger than most other domestic machines here. I now own a Series 8 Bernina 820 machine that is incredible. It has all the bells & whistles. The biggest draw back here in Canada is the price. They run about $7500 - $8000. I don't know what the price is in the States but I am sure it is cheaper than that, but still pricey compared to many other machines. It is certainly a quality machine & the throat area is even larger than my Juki. I hear good things about Janome as well so you have quite a decision to make.