I have had the 7700 for more than 2 years and totally love how it runs and works!! The knee-lift is one of my favorite things I use ALL the time to free my hands up as I quilt. My friend has a shop and sells Janome. She told me that the Horizon 7700 is going to be sold as an online machine only in the near future. I don't know exactly what that means. She has the new model that will take the place of the current Horizon in her shop. It has a few, very few, updates and improvements on it. It is not the one with the embroidery also! But it has many more stitch choices.I think she is selling the 7700 for $2300, and the new model more in the $3000 dollar range (I can't remember exactly).
I couldn't say enough about the performance of my Horizon! Please take all the classes offered if you buy one, it will open the world up to you as you learn to sew on the machine.