Originally Posted by
madamekelly
I have lower end Brother from Walmart that my daughter bought me, and a high end Brother from a dealer. That said, I would not part with either. The low end has way fewer stitches and bells and whistles, but is a work horse in its own right, and has travelled all over the country under a Grayhound bus and still works great if just a bit more vibration and noise than the high end one. The high end is the machine I would design if given the opportunity. The best feature for me is the needle threader since I can no longer see to do so. I hope this is helpful?
What differentiates a good machine from a low end machine is the low end machines usually don't have a metal internal frame. That's where vibration comes in and machines that won't stay in time, etc.. There are some decent inexpensive machines though, it all depends on what you want out of them. Most of my machines are from the 50s and 60s but I have a 10 yr old Euro Pro and a Juki I got last year that I like and use.
Cari