What do you want to do with your machine? What features are most important? What are you willing to pay for and what do you think you'd hardly, if ever, use? What's the most you're willing to spend? Is the BabyLock dealer nearby and do you like and trust them ? If you answer these questions beforehand, you'll be able to start narrowing the field. It's a big field. And then, once the objective questions are answered, go test your top picks. Whichever one just makes you want to sit there and play and you like the sound of it, and how it stitches, and you truly can afford it, get it. I personally have never tried a BabyLock, but it's similar to Brother, which I do like. My everyday machine is a Janome 8200, but that's because I had an entry level Janome that I really liked, and knew when I was ready to splurge on a large throat machine, that I'd first look at the Janomes. I love , love, love it. No regrets. That's the kind of feeling you want to get from your machine.