I have two brother machines and I like both of them. The first one was in your price range and I picked it up at Walmart. I thought when I bought it that I would probably only do quilt labels boy was I wrong. I used it a lot. I just recently picked up another brother machine that takes a larger hoop and it was about $1000 but I really like them. The $400 ones are a great starter machine to see if you will really use them as much as you think.