I am a Viking fan and have the Des-1 and I kept my 1+-didn't trade it in because I had so many $$'s tied up in embroidery cards.
My first 'fancy' machine was a Janome MemoryCraft 7500 about 15 yrs ago which I also kept. That one has about 144 built in stitches and I keep that one set up with a walking foot (one of these days I will finish some projects!).
I haven't seen the Janome model that you are looking at so I can't comment on that-just that I am very happy with my DES1.

Pat

Also forgot to add that I don't send my Viking off to be cleaned or serviced-but through the dealer it goes to an Authorized service person who picks up and delivers back to the dealer.

Pat

Thanks for your input, Pat. You are fortunate to have someone local who picks up and repairs for Viking. If I were to get the Viking, it would have to be sent to Ohio for cleaning, repairs, etc.

I was recently told Janome has software -"Customizer" - which would allow me to make not only my own embroidery designs, but also my own stitches, and to resize them as well. If that's the case, the gap is narrowing. I do a lot of graphic design, so that actually sounds rather fun to me. I can create all the stitches I want, if that is the case and could actually outdo the count with the Viking. :-) It supposedly has auto digitizing.

I think both are good machines. My current Janome is over 25 years old and works like a charm - has NEVER had to be repaired and it has performed well for me. I will keep it, but would like to have something with more stitch options and embroidery.

I have been trying to decide which one to get as well, and I discovered that some people HATE the customerizer software that janome has. The new 4D software viking has out is supposedly more user friendly and can do more things. I like that the viking recalculates the number of stitches needed when you resize designs.