I have had the Janome 300E for 5 years now, and I love it. I think that is a good price too, I paid $1100.00 for mine. I have never had any problems with it. Also I think for the money, Embird software is the best. I have it and I have been using it for over 10 years. I had Viking software, its good but way too expensive. I love the Embird, and I don't even have the digitizing portion, so far I have never really needed it. I do have some of their alphabets, and their ad-on software to do my own lettering with Fonts. You can download the Embird program and try it out for 30 days, I believe.
You can do so much with the basic program that it is almost like digitizing your own designs. I purchased mine through Secrets of Embroidery, who are great to deal with. For the money you can't beat it. If you need anymore info, I will be glad to help. Good Luck with your decision.