I know someone on another board that has the v-series combo and an 8900 and I think she preferred her v-series, not sure why. I adore my v-series machine but have not tried an 8900. I would try to get to a dealer where you can test drive it because picking a machine just on specs is not the same as testing it. It can be daunting since there are so many nice machines out there and in so many brands it really makes it hard to decided. I do like having an 11inch harp and my dual feed muvit foot on my vseries. The piercing power is just phenomenal with it. I really do not have anything bad to say about my v-series machine and have been very happy with it for over 2 years now. It doesn't disappoint so I wouldn't discount it until you do your test drive of the 8900.