Is the Melco Amaya XTS a good machine?

I bought a new Melco XTS and a new Barudan Elite Pro. The Melco is a good machine but I think the Barudan is better. The Barudan is built like a tank and I feel will perform better under heavy production. I've run the Melco about a year and the Barudan about 3 months.

The Amaya XTS is one of the better machines on the market. I think it is probably as good or better than Tajima or Barudan as far as quality and reliability. It has a lot of advanced features that are pretty cool, I like the thread delivery system, laser registration, and the 1500 SPM speed of the machine.

There is no display on the machine itself, the design is controlled by a seperate computer. Melco advertises that you can control up to 30 heads from one computer. I have one customer that has a system controlling 6 machines and it appears to work well.

The price of the machine may be a little stout. You can get a multihead from another brand for a lot less than you can get several of these; however a modular system like Melco advertises does have its advantages. Disney, New Balance and Nike can afford a higher priced system.

The only drawbacks that I have seen is that the machine has a lot of plastic parts. I am not sure what the long term quality of the machine will be. Tajima and Barudan have machines still running strong from the mid eighties and probably longer. If you plan on putting this machine in a factory setting with a less than careful employee, or if you have anger issues and sometimes smack your machine out of frustration, you may have some issues with broken parts. The tension wheels tend to be a bit weak and the control panel is not as stable as I would like. On the positive side, these parts are cheap and easy to replace.

The short answer is, if you can afford the machine it is a good investment.