I have two Brother embroidery machines and love them. They can sew or embroider. Don't know what to say about that price. I had taken one of my machines in for maintenance and a woman was in looking at some machines and said she had bought a machine from JoAnn's and had to bring it in just after she bought it as JoAnn's doesn't service machines. The Brother dealer told her Singer is still going on the fact that it was a great machine but no longer is. I don't know don't have one myself. A Singer treadle is what I learned on and I have bought 3 of them since I started sewing. I know longer have one but they were great machines but I have been told the quality has really gone down hill. On a different subject I have Hoover Windtunnel vacuum machines and the dealer who does maintenance on my three vacuum cleaners remarked when I went to pick it up that I had bought the best one and that people don't realize that the ones they get at Wal-Mart and such just aren't that great of quality. Brands have so many different makes and models that it is very confusing. I don't want to bad mouth anyone brand as I don't know that much about all the different kinds. I think it depends on what you want your machine to do. The prices vary so much.