Mya Saray Obelisk

[Shifty]

Well smoking my new pyramid from Mya. So far this thing is pulling like a champ. During the draw I don't feel any restriction. There is a small leakage in the 2 hose additions next to the hose and purge valve. No mater how much I tighten it I can still see some smoke come from them, but it's not that huge of a deal. The base itself seems sturdy enough and the glass looks well made. As pointed out by asusean the glass looks a little thin at the base, but as long as I'm careful it should be ok. The downstem seems to have something stuck in it, I have used a brush but it isn't coming out, it almost looks like peeled foil. All in all this seems to be a good hookah, it will still take a few more burns using different bowls and coals, but so far, I'm diggin my new purchase.

8/10

[hallzoo]

Had this one for about 2 months now, used it many times:

Gorgeous Black frosted glass base with handpainted silver accents. This has been very tough and has withstood a bunch of handwashings with no problems. Glass had a sticker on it that said "Made in Romania".

The head is a solid chunk of chromed out cast bronze. The head is friction fitted in to the base via a clear silicone flanged grommett. The fit is wonderful with no slop or leakage. All hose fittings are threaded, O-ring type fittings that seal wonderfully. I purchased the two hose model but it comes with additional hose fittings to run up to three hoses. Hose grommets are clear silicone and seal right up with minimal "push". The stem threads into the head from beneath and also uses a black o ring.

The shaft is equally nice black enamel painted metal with serrated-looking cloissone metal accents. The shaft threads into the head and seal with a black rubber o ring. Looking into the shaft tube against a light source reveals a seamless stainless steel bore. Putting this thing together is a blast! Cleaning is very easy, you can push a piece a paper towel through with the included cleaning rod without snagging on sharp pieces of steel or some other internal manufacturing flaw (like many cheaper hookahs).

The bowl is a typical deep Mya ceramic. Very nice for keeping the foil off the shisha while still being able to pack a lot in there.

I have yet to find a flaw with this hookah. Fit and finish are exceptional. You can really see and feel the difference between this and the $60 hookahs (of which I have two). Every piece (including the ash tray) is laser printed with "MYA". They really put some care and design into this hookah.

The included leather hoses are also nicely built, heavy and have matching cloisonne designs near the mouth piece. I prefer to use my Nammor hose when smoking alone (larger inside diameter=less resistance, easier smoke), but the Mya hoses are more elegant in appearance, IMO.

The carrying case is tight and big enough to hold the pipe, hoses, accessories, at least two bowls, and extra coals/shisha. The case is a great part of this pipe and one of the reasons I purchased it.

As far as how it smokes, well that's subjective and really a matter of shisha type, coal type, and bowl management, but there are zero leaks and this pipe conveys the smoke to my lungs with perfection and style.

This is THE hookah for me (and my hookah smoking buddies). Everything a hookah should be. I may experiment with some different bowl designs in the future (phunnel, glass, etc.) but other than that I wouldn't change a thing!!!

[Stuie]

I purchased the Mya Saray Obelisk One Hose w/ Cloisonne Stem from HS along with 2 Autoseal adapters.


The Base
The Black Base is gorgeous. The Base starts out with see through black glass made in Romania. Since there is no real black glass, you have to take a color and keep darkening it till you get to black. This base uses purple. Can't tell unless sunlight hits the base. But the slight purple hue, when lit up accents the silver and smoke hand painted accents. But for 98% of the time all you will see is black! Then the majority of the pyramid base is painted lightly with a smoked colored paint. Then the silver accents. The Heba Diffuser does not fit down into the base, small one is to small to fit on the stem and the large one will with some force but it just won't make it down there.


The Stem
The Cloisonne Stem is absolutely sexy. The stem breaks down. The inner tube of the stem is a little narrower than I would have thought. But the Cloisonne peices that surrond it hold a lot of empty space working as great internal cooling of the smoke. This may what sells me on mya hookahs. The fact that I can disassemble it and wash the entire stem with out having to use a bath tub maybe the coolest thing ever.


The Adapters
The reaseon I bought the one hose instead of a multi-hose is because it can become one. And I am replacing all my hoses with nammors/razans so I didn't need extra hoses. One hose comes with a traditional adapter. I purchased two auto-seal adapters. The Traditional has one small flaw with it in my opinion, the grommets used for them are to short. Like they are all designed to stop with the screw on the auto-seals. I haven't used the traditional adapter but once. I will be buying another autoseal later and take out the bearing to be a traditional adapter when I smoke solo.
Autoseal adapters work perfectly absolutely amazing.


The Hose
The Cloisonne Hose is an amazingly classy looking! Smokes good, not as good as a nammor/razan but it's a good litlle backup hose. Great pull on the hose and doesn't hold flavor bad like some hoses.


The Bowl
The standard Mya Bowl was a ceramic bowl unglazed on the top where it holds the shisha. Great for using on a single flavor to super charge the flavor over time, but that is the downside if you switch between flavors. Holds about 15g. Provides a good smoke.

The Case
The standard Mya Case is awesome. It holds everything, the hookah, the shisha, the accessories, the coals, and has foam to help protect everything. It's lockable with a combination lock. I wish I could use this on every hookah!

The Session
After several sessions. It took a little to get the water level just right, but now I love it!!! This hookah makes the smoke smooth no matter what I do.

The Tongs
All though they look stunning they aren't 100% easy to use. The flatness of the makes it tricky to handle coals. The attached poker is nice. I used it to poke clear pathways through the shisha in my hemi bowl to increase air flow. I keep the poker around but I might loose the tongs.



The Grade
With amazing look that has impressed everyone that has seen, The pure quality of all the parts of the hookah, the pure ease of smoking and smooth smoke, the ease of cleaning even though hardly of it can be just through in the dish washer, the pure easy of storage and transport.... 10/10!!!!! I will be using this hookah forever, and maybe even buying a second!!!!!!! Edited April 15, 2008 by Stuie

[wilarseny]

As I have this hookah as well I'd like to put in my two cents. My version is the amber base with brown cloisonne stem and hoses, also bought from hookah-shisha, and I've had it for about half a year now.

The good: it's big. Even if you have a cherry in your bowl the smoke is very smooth. Every section of this hookah comes apart for easy cleaning. No leaks. The base is large and feels very substantial. The tray is great, more than large enough to do the job. While you pay a lot for this hookah, there's literally not a single part that feels cheap or flimsy. Everything is solid and solidly constructed. The downstem is long enough, which is not something to be underappreciated--all that extra base volume means this thing can make some massive clouds. All things considered this is a very nice hookah, always manages to impress those who see it, smokes great, easy to take care of. I have no doubt this hookah will be with me for quite a while longer.

The bad: I have a few issues, and while they're mostly nitpicky I still think it could be improved. While the downstem is sufficiently wide, the metal inside stem under the cloisonne could be wider. The upper portion of the base is very narrow, it's actually significantly narrower than my Mya Acrylic. As such it's hard to get things into or out of the bottom of the base--ice, lemons, etc. I had a really bad time this weekend getting some lemon chunks out of there; while it tasted amazing, I'm going to have to cut those up more next time. The autoseal adapters that came with this hookah are for some reason smaller than the ones I got with my last hookah, to the point of being nearly unusable. Even the stock Mya hoses fall out of them, and don't even think about sticking a nammor/razan in there, because it's not going to happen. Not sure if this is just a bad batch or what. Also, some pieces in the stem don't like to twist apart, and in fact two of them are stuck together right now. This is pretty frustrating to me, as I like to take the hookah apart completely and clean it thorougly after each use. The stem wobbles on the base sometimes, but that might just be a grommet problem, and it's never been in danger of completely tipping over.

All in all, the problems of this hookah are pretty minor. I wouldn't give this a ten, since things can always be made better, but I've had experiences with more than a few hookahs and this is one of the best if not the best I've used. 8.8/10, mostly because of the thin base neck.

[K1024]

after seeing the km vs nour vs mz showdown id thought i would go ahead and do all that for the obelisk when i reviewed it. so well start with that.

Downstem gauge


Hose port gauge


Top of stem gauge


Overall stem length


Ash tray size


Ash tray depth


A picture of it in use


I really enjoy my obelisk, it smokes better than any other hookah that ive smoked, and is super easy to clean.

my only disappointment is the base, which broke after half a year of use...it broke when i set it in the sink, so be very careful when refilling. Unlike Stuie though, i had no problem fitting the small heba diffuser onto the pipe, even on the original base. i guess my other disappointment is that the hoses break relatively easily.. pretty much half of mine are, although if you use a screwdriver to remove the piece inside ive been able to patch them all back together.

details details....the hoses have yet to rust or ghost flavor, and all are about a year old now. personally i really like the tongs, the flatness allows you to scrap all the shisha off of them and into the bowl, unlike other tongs. I also have not had the problem of holding coals with them, though i guess it is slightly easier with my friends tongs. the attached poker makes really nice size holes in the foil, and is great for poking things.

im going to give it a 10/10 till i find a better pipe.

[lowspeedchase]

Just wanted to quickly add that I had no problem getting the small heba diffuser onto the stem.

Oh and: 10/10 for the Obelisk.

[evlpengwyn]

I got my black Mya Obelisk (2-hose) a few days ago, and I have enjoyed it immensely so far. With a phunnel bowl, heba diffuser, and nammor hoses, it hits like a dream! I smoked a bowl of Romman Nectarine for about 2 hours last night and the flavor came through great, the draw is easy, great clouds, everyone who has seen/smoked it has complimented it.

The quality of the pipe becomes evident when assembling it, everything fits together perfectly and just has a "well-made" feel to it.

The autoseal adapters work great- I had to spray some vegetable oil on one of them because it was sticking a bit, but not a single issue with it since then.

The base is solid, the neck is a bit small but I knew that before I ordered and it's not a problem. All you have to do is throw some ice in a ziploc bag and crush it up a bit; I'm also keeping an eye out for smaller ice cube trays. The small heba diffuser went on the downstem fine, made easier by running hot water over it while I slipped it on (thanks to the suggestions of many forum members).

I ordered it from Hookah-Shisha and asked them to "upgrade" the included hoses to the nammors, since they said that way it would only be $10 per nammor-- they apparently forgot to take the included mya hoses out so now I have 4 hoses, I just ordered 2 more autoseal valves to take advantage of them!

Overall, I give the Obelisk a 9.8/10, the only gripe I have is the same one everyone has about mya hookahs, purging is a bit of a hassle but it's really easy to ignore this given the overall quality of the pipe.

[evlpengwyn]

I've had this hookah for almost exactly one month now and I'd like to add a little something to my review. The base is about as thick as a dime in some places, a corner broke off of mine last night while I was holding it on the counter, wiggling the stem out. So I would recommend against getting a mya with this particular base until they have their quality assurance issue straightened out. Don't expect to get any help from their customer service, I called them up and they basically told me I should have returned it as soon as I got it if I didn't like it (I couldn't tell how thin the glass was at the bottom of the base until it was broken), they don't stand behind their products at all.



I still think it's a great hookah for the most part, but if you buy one don't plan on the base lasting very long, and don't plan on getting any help from the manufacturer when it magically breaks a month later.