The two machines you're looking at are combo machines, that is, they are sewing machines with an embroidery arm that you attach. If you already have a good sewing machine, you don't need a combo. I don't know anything about the LB6800THRD, but the SE400 is a good machine. A few embroidery only machines I can recommend for a beginner are the Brother PE500, Brother PE770, Brother Designio 820, and the Janome MC200e. All of these are good machines that won't break the bank. I'm a die hard Brother fan but had such a bad experience at the Brother dealer so I went to the Janome dealer and bought the MC200e as my first embroidery machine. It uses a 5x5 hoop that's a little bigger than the entry level Brother machines' 4x4. It's a great machine. If you are going to buy online, while you're waiting for your machine, go to Utube and spend the next few days watching the gazillion videos on machine embroidery. There are videos on just about every machine you can think of.
Cari
Last edited by Cari-in-Oly; 12-01-2014 at 02:20 PM.