My wife started on a $80 Euro Pro machine just to get her feet wet. When we were looking for fabric one day the store owner invited her to sit down and sew on one of her Pfaff machines. From that day forward it was all my wife talked about. We had to save for a while to buy the machine, but the IDT makes all the difference. She is using a 2038 and we paid ~$1,600 for it. It has several features that she enjoys, but again, the IDT is what sold her. Other high-end machines that she has looked at don't measure up to that one feature.
I hope you enjoy your new machine.
Darren