Oops. Started looking on Amazon and the $700 Brother combo machine has only a 4x4 hooping area:
http://www.amazon.com/Brother-LB-680...dp/B003J4G8V4/
See "answers" to find out that a larger hoop will not make the embroidery larger; just saves re-hooping.
The Brother embroidery-only machine is in your price range and gets great reviews, but it's not a combo:
http://www.amazon.com/Brother-PE770-...dp/B002MQI2NM/
I have seen mixed reviews of the Singer Futura; you might want to check into that one. Normally I wouldn't even suggest a modern Singer, but I know that the Futura has gotten good reviews from some buyers.
Do you *really* need a combo machine? If I wanted to go the embroidery route, I would definitely get an embroidery-only machine and have a separate machine for piecing. That way I would still be able to piece while the embroidery machine was sewing out a design.