I have the Diamond Royale and just love it. I find the Vikings to be very user friendly. My suggestion would be to go to the various dealers and check out these machines. I do like the fact that with the Diamond Royale you can sew while still having the embroidery unit on. I have the Designer I, the SE, the Diamond and use them for different things. The SE has the walking foot on it, so I use that for putting on binding, the Diamond has the flat table so I use that for general use, also the DI is used for general purpose. I don't know anything about other machines so can give no opinion about them. But a good dealer is very important when getting to know the new machine.