I just bought a Janome 6600 and it should fit in your budget. Mine was $1300 ~ I did get a 5% discount for not using a credit/debit card. Loving this machine .... coming from a 43 yr. old Bernina Record 730 (which I also loved for as many years as I had it ~ and I still have it). But the features on the 6600 are awesome.
Hope you get to *test drive* this one
jody