I agree Brother cs600i is a great little machine. I think I paid $199 at Costco. I use it as a backup. I would certainly not buy a cheap Bernina. I have a Bernina Activa 230 and it is not fancy but has a reasonable amount of embroidery stitches and I paid $1500 several years ago . It is a great machine and sews through things that are almost industrial type...i.e.
tops of totes that are thick. I never have tension problems with it and my only complaint is it is a small harp only 6.5" so not easy to push a big quilt thru. I mostly do QAYG to get around this problem.