I hesitate to recommend anything to anyone, but I will tell you this: I have the original 11000 (bought when they were first on the market), not the 11000 Special Edition, although I could upgrade, for a price, to SE if I felt the need. I have really enjoyed my machine. It's had to have the computer tweaked on 2 occasions (different tweaks, but same issue) and I've had to have 2 LED lights replaced, which are expensive, but it sews & embroiders like a dream. (All the original 11000 machines are a bit noisy while they embroider, but don't know about the SE.) I love the fact that the screen moves up so that it is both out of my way and at eye level and I love the fact that I don't have a separate embroidery unit to hook onto the machine.
The 11000 does have the free arm for garment sewing.
I like to look at the expensive dedicated embroidery machines and I'd love to have one, BUT I can only concentrate on one thing at a time, so I either sew or I embroider and never would do both at the same time. As long as my combo. machine keeps sewing well, it's all I need and am grateful to have it.