# Chose Melco Amaya Bravo



## Daddyof4 (Aug 23, 2011)

Due to embroidery work doubling within the last couple of months we decided it is time for a second embroidery machine. The first machine we bought in early August was the Brother PE-1000. The PE-1000 was okay but for $13,000+ we expected more. On the other hand we had heard great things about the PE-650 so we comparison shopped between it and a Melco Bravo.

After reading posts on here and looking at the price vs. features it all came down to what we get for the money. With the PE-650 we would get a machine nearly identical to the PR-1000 with an on-board screen. With the Melco we have to have a laptop hooked at all times. 

The PE-650 was going to cost us nearly $10,000 by the time we bought fast frames, table, and the extras. The Melco comes with a refurbished laptop to run it, the table, and it costs $8,275 with no shipping or tax. So we ordered the Melco and it is due to arrive in a few days.

I don't know if anyone else on here owns both but we will be going head to head with the PR-1000 and the Melco and seeing which one is truly the best.


----------



## sassystitches (Sep 16, 2010)

I would love to hear your opinion after running both for a while. Thanks for the heads up!


----------



## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

Good deal on the machine. Good luck with it.


----------



## Daddyof4 (Aug 23, 2011)

Ok the Melco Bravo came Friday and was assembled and is now running. So far here are our findings of the Bravo vs our PE-1000

SPEED: 

Both the Bravo and the PE-1000 can embroider up to 1,000 spm but the Bravo is significantly faster due to the startup speed and almost instantaneous movement from position to position. Probably 30% faster or more in completion time.

SOFTWARE

The Bravo came with Amaya OS Lite software along with Design Shop V9. The PE-1000 came with PE-Design Next software.

The PE Design Next software sets up designs pretty easily. The sidebar shows an image of each step of the design and they can be re-arranged in any order you wish. 

The Design Shop v9 software is used to setup a design and is fairly comparable to the PE-Design Next but a bit less user friendly and requires more clicking and manual steps for each edit. The OS Lite software is used to run the Bravo and it is very disappointing. Setting up thread colors is difficult compared to setting up the PE-1000 on-board program. The most troublesome feature (or lack of a feature) is that with the OS Lite you cannot go back and re-embroider a section of the design without holding a button and going back one stitch at a time.

QUALITY OF EMBROIDERY

Both machines produce nice quality embroidery. Comparing the designs I see little if any difference.

NOISE

The PE-1000 is quiet during idle times but is reasonably noisy during operation. 
The Bravo hums and makes odd noise during idle time when the power is on. During operation it is significantly louder than the PE-1000. 

NEEDLE THREADING

The PE-1000 is typical to thread from spool to needle. Nothing unexpected. The needle area has plenty of room to thread manually but even more impressive is the needle threader.

The Bravo has a sweeper bar that can be moved out of the way but overall is harder to thread at the needle. However threading the spools is a bit quicker than with the PE-1000. I do not believe this machine has a needle threader but I'm still learning it so we'll see...

OVERALL EASE OF USE

PE-1000 is easier to use from setup to finish but the Melco Bravo is faster. 

It's still early on so I have much to learn about the Bravo before I can say one is better than the other.


----------



## Daddyof4 (Aug 23, 2011)

After a week of running the new Bravo I can honestly say the machine is great! The quality of the embroidery is awesome. But the OS Lite software the Bravo comes with is just a complete failure. It is barely functional for even simple designs when compared to the Brother software. When I contacted Melco they explained that the Melco Bravo is the same exact machine as the XTS but the difference is the Bravo comes with a much cheaper software. That was an understatement.

So far my recommendation is that if all you have to spend is about $9,000 then go with the Brother 650. But if you can afford a few more thousand dollars go with the Melco XTS. Again the Melco machine is much faster and heavy duty than the Brother but the software that comes with the Bravo is absurdly impractical for most embroidery businesses and you will kick yourself for having not went with the XTS.


----------



## kylerogers (Jul 30, 2008)

I just mailed my paperwork for a loan to get a Melco XTS.

They just had a showcase near me and they offered me the lowest price ever. I've been looking at them for over a year and this was my second showcase.

There is actually two machines, two versions of the operating system, and four versions of the design software.

It looks like the dealers only sell the Melco Bravo, the cheaper of the two. Usually with the cheapest versions of the software. 

I didn't want to have to pay thousands later to keep upgrading the software if I needed more features.

The package deal I'm getting is the XTS (max speed 1,500), the best operating system and the best version of the Design software. Pro+ version. I also get two days on on site training from one of their independent contractors. The webinars. You can also take a two day class from Melco for free after purchasing a machine, but it's only given in Denver.

I also get the fancy baseball cap system and the fancy pocket frame, plus lots more.

All for the price of a PE-1000. 

I bought a refurbished HP with a 17" screen from Tiger Direct for $375.


----------



## Posylane (Mar 3, 2011)

Kyle,

Do you really need the expensive software option? We use the lite operating system and have just the intermediate software. It won't do complecated digitizing but does everything else. Also if you are going to do heavy design I would get a bigger monitor, a 17" is a nice size for running the machine but not generating a lot of work. And don't skimp on processor - get 3-4 core running at 2.8GHz min, 3.2GHz better.


----------



## drdoct (Jul 26, 2011)

What turned me away from Melco machines was the fact that it had to be run by a computer. Isn't that right? When I was buying it was hard to tell which machines had to be constantly tethered to run. I've got an old brother commercial and it's much faster than the pr series, but I would love to have a needle threader and the quietness of a pr. My machine stays at 500/800/1000/1200 after the initial tie off stitches. I wish they made the pr series to do that but it would probably break it. I don't know if I'd trust the whole computer to run a machine thing since you see a lot of melco machines being sold without software (essentially useless without a big software investment). Why not SWF or Toyota?


----------



## Posylane (Mar 3, 2011)

You do need a dedicated computer but one computer can run at least 32 machines if you are a production only shop. We do a lot of single jobs so we have chosen to do 1 computer per machine and initially didn't like that for cost reasons, but am ok with it now. I put powerful machines together for around $500 each and the dedicated computer allows for large screen sizes (we do 20-21 inch screens) which makes working with them nice. I recently spent $500 each for nice monitor/keyboard arms so people are able to stand up and operate the machine and that made folks here very happy.

The Amayas come on an included plastic stand but we tossed those and put them on benches about six inches higher than the stand. Again it helps with not bending over so much. Before we did both of these things tall machine operators started complaining about back pain after working here a few months. Now we don't hear gripes about back pain.

Plus on the backs of the benches we put grid wall and hang the hoops and threads behind the machines, and merchandise on the bench backsides.


----------



## Daddyof4 (Aug 23, 2011)

The more I run the Melco the more I like it. Even though the machine has to be tethered to a laptop that actually was far, far easier to get used to than I thought. In fact i don't even think about it anymore.

I'm still unimpressed with the OS Lite software so I believe kylerogers made the best decision in going with the XTS and it is a choice he won't look back and regret. We will be upgrading as soon as we can.

For our purposes we plan to get more Melco machines with individual laptops as opposed to a multi head unit.

As far as raising the machine up I don't see the point for us. Rolling around in an office chair works for me.


----------



## drdoct (Jul 26, 2011)

I roll around in an office chair on my machine too. In fact am so used to it that I can't do anything without sitting on it.


----------



## Kimsie (Oct 5, 2007)

I'm chiming in a little late here, but I have a 1-Amaya XT and love it, yes its connected to the computer all the time, I also use the same computer for a cutter, and printer/cutter and bookwork for the business (my computer was custom built).


----------



## purdyfancy (Oct 27, 2011)

I'm looking at purchasing a used XT. Any advice? Reading y'alls posts has been very helpful. Thanks a bunch!!


----------



## Daddyof4 (Aug 23, 2011)

I'm not a fan of used machines. But Melco makes a great machine so if you are going to get a used one, that would be the one I would choose. One reason being because a lot of the repairs and maintenance is performed by you and often a service tech can talk you through it.


----------



## Daddyof4 (Aug 23, 2011)

In an update for the original purpose of the thread, after getting used to both machines I would choose Melco hands down. It's faster, more reliable, and user serviceable.


----------



## kylerogers (Jul 30, 2008)

I getting better and better with mine. At first I broke threads constantly (this is my first embroidery machine ever).

But now, as long as my embroidery file it goes smoothly. I keep the speed set at 1200 and it rarely goes below 1100.

I'm still having problems with small fonts. They cause a lot of thread breaks, but I think it's a matter of tweaking them out. Because the same fonts seem work fine if I make them bigger.

One thing that is really great is the auto-digitizing of true type fonts. It works great.

In fact, it seems like it does a better job of placing the end points and making the connecting line as small as possible with the the True Type fonts than some of Melco's built in fonts.

Some of the built in fonts connect to each other in really bad places.


----------



## nalob (Jun 23, 2011)

I too was looking at the pe-1000. I went to a local dealer to check it out. But after I left I was kinda unimpressed. Especially for the price. They wanted $15,500 and that doesn't include hat frames either. Even the pe-650 was $10,000. But brother was the only company that I have found here in Hawaii with local techs. Till I searched the web for any other company with local techs and found that melco has one that is about 10mins from me. 

I called him and went to a demonstration and was sold! Called melco for a quote on the bravo but also asked if I could get a quote on the XTS they told me it was only a few thousand more. I ended up buying the XTS. I am very happy with my purchase. Took some time to get used to it being I have no prior experience with embroidery. 

I ended up paying a lot less than the pe-1000 and a little more than the pe-650 and feel that it was a better machine all in all.


----------

