Find yourself a good dealer and go check the machine (s) out. There are so many options for and against emb. versus regular sewing machines you really need to look at them all. I have the 9000 which only uses cards for emb. It never gave me a bit of trouble in the 13 yrs of have been using it. I updated, three years ago to Janome memory craft 10001 so I could download designs to emb from the computor. What ever you choose good luck. Marge PS, I still use the 9000 as a back up machine