Digital BW, The Print

I am currently printing with an 1160 using carbon sepia piezotones 
and an iQuad profile on Photo Rag.  I love the look of the prints 
but the printer is becoming fussier every day.  I can only print 2-3 
prints before horizontal banding shows up.  I do cleaning cycles and 
Windex and then can print again.  But the banding always shows back 
up.

I would like to upgrade the printer to a more reliable and durable 
one since my print volume has also increased.  And I would like to 
keep the look of the carbon sepia piezotones.  Going to a wider 
model would be a plus.

I have tried QTR on my 2200 and Ultrachromes using canned profiles 
but could never get the blacks and the "pop" of the piezo inks.

Any suggestions on my upgrade path?  A 4000 with piezo inks and 
Studioprint?  The same setup except using QTR?  Ultrachromes, QTR 
and custom profiles?  Is the new 4800 be a possibility?

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks,
Jenny

If you can swing the price of the 4800 and studioprint (when 
supported) you will get the most flexibility. It seems that the 4000 
only has 7 heads addressable at any one time while the 4800 has all 
8. This opens up a lot of options when you buy a compatible RIP to 
drive it. After that you only need to decide if the 3 black inks will 
do what you want, or if you need to go with 5 black inks and CMY for 
toners, or maybe 8 blacks if that is what you need.

By turning ink channels on or off, you could have a printer that 
works with matte or gloss papers without having to change the inks. 
Advantage would be 5 blacks for matte papers, and 4 for glossy. This 
last part could be (mostly) done with the 4000, except you will only 
ever have the 4 blacks plus CMY (7 channels with switching black 
channel).

Just my 2 cents, I'm sure others will voice their opinion.

Does anyone have a suggestion?  Would I be able to use 2 different 
quad black inksets (for example, carbon sepia/selenium) on the 4000 
and run it with QTR?  Would I be able to get the same look with the 
new 4800 and QTR using UC inks?

Thanks,
Jenny

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "byushooter" 
<jellerbe@j...> wrote:
> I am currently printing with an 1160 using carbon sepia piezotones 
> and an iQuad profile on Photo Rag.  I love the look of the prints 
> but the printer is becoming fussier every day.  I can only print 2-
3 
> prints before horizontal banding shows up.  I do cleaning cycles 
and 
> Windex and then can print again.  But the banding always shows 
back 

> up.
> 
> I would like to upgrade the printer to a more reliable and durable 
> one since my print volume has also increased.  And I would like to 
> keep the look of the carbon sepia piezotones.  Going to a wider 
> model would be a plus.
> 
> I have tried QTR on my 2200 and Ultrachromes using canned profiles 
> but could never get the blacks and the "pop" of the piezo inks.
> 
> Any suggestions on my upgrade path?  A 4000 with piezo inks and 
> Studioprint?  The same setup except using QTR?  Ultrachromes, QTR 
> and custom profiles?  Is the new 4800  a possibility?
> 
> Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. 
>