I've never tried a Juki so can't speak to it. But I love, love, love my Janome 8200. I moved up to it from a small Janome DC 1050 when I figured out that I really wanted to make bigger quilts. The throat space was the deciding factor, it was intuitive to me, the needle up/down and thread cutter (one of my favorite features ever), as well as a really good rapport with the dealer, sealed the deal. I had compared the 6500 to the 6600 and, had throat space not been my deciding factor to upsize to the 8200, I would've gotten the 6600.