You probably won’t go wrong with either machine. Try them both out. The older machine may not have the adaptor that allows you to change feet, but that can be added and is well worth it to be able to use the sure foot, echo feet, couching feet, glide foot and new micro foot. It may not have the electronic readout for the top tension, but that can also be added. There are probably some things on the new one that can't be added to the older one- a built in timer comes to mind And a couple of other things that you may or may not find important like a basting stitch and the built in timer. I donkt have either of those on mine, but can honestly say I haven’t missed them.
I bought my Sweet Sixteen used. It is one of the older ones (pre 2014 I think). The person who owned it before me had it upgraded with an add on electronic tension readout, the shank that allows you to easily change feet, etc. She had only put 600,000 stitches on it. I have since put over 3,000,000 stitches on it and it runs beautifully.
Mine does not have the stitch regulator that they made to go with these, but I tried one out and didn’t like it. I’ve also tried out the stitch regulator that's built into the table on both the HQ Capris and also on the Innova and I didn’t care for those either. I think if you’ve been fmq for any length of time without a stitch regulator, you may find that you don’t like using them for most of your quilting.
Rob
Last edited by rryder; 07-09-2020 at 08:28 AM.