I am a Janome loyal but appreciate and respect the Bernina brand. I too looked at the sit down lBernina model. SInce I have a longarm (looking to upgrade), I have a fair amount of Glide thread and wanted to make sure the Bernina would accept that thread. I didn't bring the thread with me but was told my sales person to stick with the brand of thread they recommend and for the life of me, I can' t remember the brand. It was a good brand but can't remember the name. The Bernina also states in their manual to use their "red" bobbins. At that store, they were selling for $5 a piece. The sales person also highly recommended to use only Bernina bobbins. In my stock right now, I have at least 100 bobbins with Glide thread already loaded on them. So I felt maybe Bernina wasn't for me. Bernina is a great brand with years of great machines, service and reputation.