I'm personally fond of Janome, I have the Horizon 7700 and absolutely love it, as well as my smaller 6260. If I were you, I'd go to the quilt show and play with every machine that you're interested in. Keep notes, then make your decision. I agree with having a certified technician work on your machine. Where you buy it from depends on the deal you get. If you can get all the freebies included in the deal - go for it!! I'm lucky to have a good local sewing shop in my town. He's a bit of a *** but, the other sales people are very knowlegeable. And even with the owner's personality, he's always done well by me. I always received freebies and things when I go in his shop. Recently I brought a friend in to buy her machine, and he gave me goodies that added up to a nice commission!

I would do a local quilt show because many of your local machine vendors will be there so you can still have your free classes, my dealer always is at all the shows, but he also has his deals at his shops during the show weeks so you can always see if you local dealers honor their show prices in the shops