Advice on what to get after KM6501

[vermit]

Hi All,
We are a small digital shop, we have one KM5501 and one KM6501.
Our lease ends in a couple of months and will be looking for something to replace the above 2.

These machines did a relatively good job apart from colour re-production.

Suggestions please?
Thanks

 

[Possumgal]

If you like KM and have a good tech to service them, see what else they have to offer first. Switching brands can fix some problems but open up a whole bunch of different ones, especially if you find the new brand's tech isn't up to snuff or is too far away to do much good in crunch situations.

Xerox boxes tend to have a lot more plastic parts than KM, although they also have more user replaceable parts. Best bet is to see what your KM rep has to offer, but entertain some offers from at least one other brand. That way you can play the salespeople off each other and maybe get a break.

 

[gig0]

We updated our 6501's with some 6000's and also added a 7000 as well.

As far as color goes, the biggest thing I've noticed is the newer machines don't have the same densities the old 6501's had. The prints look even more like offset. Just just won't get that "shine" if you're printing heavy coverage with Gloss Mode activated. Once you figure out your profiles (we have custom profiles & gradation tables to match to our presses) matching up to exact repeats shouldn't be too much of a problem. Every once in a while you get that job where you have to use crazy profiles and black magic in order to match up to an old 6501 sample with heavy densities. If I were to guess, maybe 5-10% of repeat work needs special handling due to the upgrade.

 

[AverroesDesign]

What type of work do you guys tend to do gig0

 

[gig0]

We're trade printers. We print for other printers and brokers; commercial, forms, wide format & digital. In other words, we get you out of trouble.

 

[vermit]

Thanks for the replies and sorry for not getting back sooner.
We are leaning towards the Xerox c75 atm but will also be looking at KM's 6000.
Can anyone that has used both care to compare the two?

Thanks