Davinci JR vs Makerfarm..

So I bought my Daughter a DaVinci JR for her birthday, it cost ~$350, only prints PLA and requires you to use their branded filament in the printer. Not a big deal because I want something that she could use on her own when she wanted to use it. It automatically configures all the settings for you. So I pull it out of the box, plug it in, install the filament, install the software on her PC off the SD card included with the printer. Pop the SD card into the printer and print the sample file.

All I can say is that I am even more disappointed with the print quality from my 12" Makerfarm. I did absolutely nothing to the Davinci JR besides plug it in and install the filament and the very first print came out looking better than anything that has came off of my Makerfarm since I have had it and I have spent countless hours trying to get the thing to produce quality prints. I thought I had the Makerfarm printing fairly well until I saw the print the XYZ produced.

So whats the difference between these two? Is it the hardware or the software or a combination of the two?

I never have been able to get rid of Z banding on my Makerfarm and that seems to be its Achilles heal. Even when I print with the heat bed turned off I still get banding and with the heatbed on the banding is much worse. Should I change from threaded rods to ballscrews on the Makerfarm? Or should I just give up and buy a commercially built printer?

It doesn't seem to be just my printer because most of the pictures of prints I see from Makerfarms have banding issues and it is one of the leading complaints and requests for help that I see in this forum. Whats the magic bullet to fix it???