I would look at the features, I know janomes I think don't have the pivoting feature, but they have a wider harp than the babylock. I would also consider the babylock aria as it has a wide harp and more features than the quest and is probably in the close to the 8900 price range. I have the combo version of the crescendo on the brother side and know one person that has the brother version of the aria and the 8900 and much prefers the brother. The crescendo has the laser and pen which is the only difference from the aria, and I truly adore my machine for its dual feed, and the laser among other things. I think the quest has a 9 inch harp but the others have an 11 inch including the aria I believe. Me personally with this being a hobby you love would save up for the nicer machine as you would probably enjoy it more, however 500 is a good deal on a quest, as those are very nice machines. I would try it out because I know IDT on the pfaffs(which the quest is) is very different from accufeed on a janome and you might prefer one over the other.