I have a Janome 6600 and I LOVE this machine. I mostly quilt but I managed to sew through 8 layers of leather with it too, repairing a cuff on my DH's jacket. (It did finally balk at 12 layers of leather though, lol!)
As others have said...I agree, avoid Singer. My boss just bought his wife a new expensive Singer and was happily telling me all about it but could tell from the look on my face something was wrong. I told him I hoped he got a good one but I'd heard nothing good about new Singers. They took it to the shop twice within a month before returning it and getting a Pfaff. (I haven't run a modern Pfaff so no opinion from me on them. I did learn to sew on a 1954 Pfaff and that thing was quite literally built like a tank. Wouldn't mind getting another one of those!)
I am fond of Brother/Babylock; I've owned a couple lower-end Brothers that were great machines, both I ended up giving away to family members and both are still running. I still have a Brother embroidery-only machine too. But both of my sewing machines are Janome - my big 6600 and then I bought a 3160QDC as my travel machine.
The 3160QDC would be in your price range; it's a standard-sized machine but has lots of great features (including the scissor cut button, which is my most favorite feature ever) and it sews like a dream; very quiet and smooth. It's a "quilter" machine so it comes with the extender bed and quarter-inch foot. (Doesn't come with a walking foot though) So if an extra-large harp is not on your "must have" list, you might consider test-driving one of those.