Brother is not the poorer version of Babylock, it's just the opposite. Babylock is the more expensive version of Brother. I have a Babylock machine and it sits in it's case. I have at last count 14 Brother machines and they get used. That being said, when shopping for a new machine you really have to test drive them without previous prejudice like what you read. When I was loking at new machines a couple years ago I narrowed one of my choices down from Babylock to Brother because I could get the same features and quality in a Brother for considerably less $$. But I ended up buying a Janome because I was so unimpressed with how I was treated by the Brother dealer and the Janome dealer was so much nicer, I felt at the time they listened to what I wanted rather than try to sell me what they thought I should buy. I haven't regretted my purchase for a second.
Cari