Virtuoso sg400 vs Ricoh sg3100

[Vinyl Conflict]

What are peoples real world experiences and advice for someone looking to buy their first sublimation printer? i have read the sticky thread regarding this, I think i've decided on a Richoh/virtuoso printer.

What i cant really decide is what the benefits of the the above printers are over each other.

I understand the Virtuoso is just a modified and rebranded ricoh which takes the HD inks, however in my searches i haven't found many real world test results to show they are actually any better over the sublijet R inks used in the sg3100. Ink prices are very similar, with the HD inks actually coming out a bit cheaper in my searches

So please pas on your thoughts and experience/advice.

Thanks in advance

[Justin]

HD inks are supposed to have a slightly larger gamut, as they're a little cheaper I'd go for those. Sawgrass also directly honour a 2 year warranty on the re-badged machine I believe but please check that.

[bms]

The SG400 with SubliJetHD inks will be up to £100 more expensive to buy than the SG3110 with SubliJetR inks. Cartridges will be up to 5% more expensive (RRP) for the SubliJetR replacement inks (£2 extra on a colour cartridge for example).

Main differences are the SG400 comes with a 2 year warranty (1 year on SG3110) and the SG400 comes with CreativeStudio which can be useful if you're new to Sublimation.

[Vinyl Conflict]

Thanks for that,

so in in relation to output quality, there is no real difference?

[bms]

Thanks for that,

so in in relation to output quality, there is no real difference?

If you put a print from the SG3110 next to the SG400 (on high gloss metal or high gloss ceramic) then you will see reds are redder and some shades are better - this is the colour gamer that Justin refers to above. If you had a print from either shown separately you'd probably think both were excellent.

If you're a perfectionist then go for the SG400. Thousands of people using the SG3110 and thousands of satisfied end customers so there's nothing to complain about.

[Vinyl Conflict]

thanks, great advice