Experience with quality of Amaya machines

One thing you may want to consider is the speed of the machine.

I've heard too fast (which is a key selling feature of the Amaya) is not good.
The higher speeds will cause components to heat up and wear out faster which may result in more down time and repairs.

I don't know if it's true, however, you may want to research this.

speed also causes more thread breaks and general inturptions in the general running of your machine when sewing product. In this case fast is not better!

Laurie

Our new Barudan arrived today and it is awesome. Well worth the money spent for training, support and being able to sleep at night.

I own an Amaya XT and a traditional Japanese style multi head machine. Each has their place and perform their function in my shop.

The Amaya XT is perfect for short runs as it is quicker to load designs and color changes than traditional style machine. However, if i have a large run, then the 'ol multi head is a better fit.

Since my store is retail facing, I do have a lot of walk in traffic who just want less than 5 items or a mongramm on a bag, etc... This work is perfect for the Amaya. I can que up designs in the Amaya so all I have to do is swap the item on the hoop. By the time I'm done, the new design is automatically loaded, and I hit the green button. Easy peasy...

For larger runs, I setup the other machine and she chugs along all day doing the same thing over and over. Perfect! that's what she is meant to do.

As for speed, I run my Amaya XT at 1250 spm for all flat items. 900 spm for hats. My multi head's sweet spot is around 750 spm for flats and 650 spm for hats. Many factors go into thread breaks and I dont find one machine to be better than another for this variable. The machines architecture is completely different so it's kinda an apple and orange comparison. The are both fruits but and different on the inside. make sense?

Both machines require regular maintanence or they wont function properly. Both require well digitized designs or thread breaks will be seen. (this is probably the most common cause of thread breaks) The traditional style machine requires a knowledge of thread tension and how to adjust. (not difficult but is required to make it run the best or thread breaks occur). The Amaya XT has sensors built in to assist with the tension. Notice I said "assist". The auto mode works ok for most items but there are times when the manual tension mode is required.

The traditional machine is better as running "fluffy" items such as knit hats. The Amaya doesnt seem to be able to adjust to the bounce certain fabrics like knit hats have. Since the tension sensors are reading the bounce, it kinda throws it off. The traditional machine doesnt care. Its slamming the stitches in whether its flat or "bouncy).

The whole idea here goes back to what I first stated. Each machine has their place and perform their function well when maintained and operated properly. The much much bigger question to ask is what kina SUPPORT from the manufacture are you going to receive AFTER the sale. How far would a tech have to travel to get to your location? How fast would they be able to respond? I can not STRESS how important this is!!! SUPPORT is way more a determing factor than price or speed. If your machine is down, you are losing money. Ask your potential manufacture to provide a list of clients who own their machines. CALL THEM! find out their view of the support and service. If you fail to do this, you are only setting yourself up for failure or at least, a lot of headaches.

amaya is junk. i owned 3 if them they all broke . the first day i had them one went down.
These machines are not meant for commercial embroidery. infact i think a Cuisinart could do a better job. the other thing is the support is like this. once they have your money its over. they dont care. look on equip-used.com call them call west embroidery equip. also when i went to sell my month old machine one guy offered me 2000$ for it!! his exact words were this " its like a small *****, you cant do much with it" take my word for it and buy a tajima or barudan.

I haven't owned one but I've heard that the machines don't have enough weight to them to use the end needles on either side. There is too much "bounce" to maintain a good speed. Have you checked out the Amaya Usere's Group http://www.amayausers.com/boards/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=000046;p=0 ? I would be careful to get feedback from experienced users rather than people who just got their machine or don't use it for production work.