some like separate because they can have the embroidery unit going while their sewing, it also depends on your budget. brother has some nice embroidery only for 700-800 the combo units high end nice ones run around 2000-8000 depending on the bells and whistles. I have my babylock espire(Brother QC-1000) and was thinking of getting embroidery only because i already have a nice machine, Mine cost 1800 got a classroom model. I just can't see spending another 2000 for the Inovovis1500D or 6000 for the duetta