Best Production Printer Choice

[per771]

I have recently started working for a company and have been put in charge of updating our 8 year old Canon Image Press 7900. We have a relatively low monthly volume of around 50,000 pages, 95% color. We have received quotes for a Xerox Versant 80, Canon C700, and Konica Minolta C1070. Myself and our graphic designers were invited to Konica Minolta to print some of our work and see the machines. We really were impressed, and in the end the Konica quote is the cheapest. I was also a bit surprised that the other two companies did not invite us to see their machines in action. Service and maintenance at all three of the companies are solid.

My question is if anyone has any professional feedback on the machines listed above (reliability, quality, etc)? While the sales teams were able to discuss some minute differences, it is very difficult for me to see any huge advantages for any of the machines. I am very inexperienced in this realm, and am honestly initially most interested in the Konica because it is cheaper (20,000 less than the Xerox and almost 10,000 less than the Canon), I have had the opportunity to see it in action, and I am impressed with their sales and training team so far. For reference, we will be running a Fiery controller.

I would appreciate any and all feedback.

 

[Stickman42]

We upgraded from a Xerox DocuColor 5000 and 7000 to two Versant 80's. They have been VERY reliable compared to our old machines. A lot of the components are operator replaceable, which helps uptime. The prints have a much more matte/flat look to them (DocuColor prints were more glossy). This is due to the toner type and/or the presence of a fusing pressure belt instead of roller, I believe. Overall, we are very pleased with them.

Our Versants came with the high capacity feeder, high capacity stacker, and external Fiery RIP at a little less than $40K for each system. It was a 2015 end of year sales push though.

 

[gregbatch]

What was the price on your V80? Was it a V80 or V80P? What feed/finishing options?

 

[Stickman42]

Our V80B Versants came with the high capacity feeder, high capacity stacker, and external Fiery RIP at a little less than (edit) $32K for each system. It was a 2015 end of year sales push though.

 

[per771]

I believe it is the Versant 80P with high capacity feeder, standard booklet maker, external Fiery Rip with Compose/Impose. The quote came in around $80,000, but today the rep called back in a bit of a panic wanted to quote a step down machine (not sure what) because I mentioned that I'm getting quotes from some other companies (they are the company we currently use with our Canon...they have gone to Xerox machines now).

The Canon came in close to $70,000 (after their offer to buy our old machine for $8,000). The Konica was around $62,000. Both had the same set up as the Versant. And Konica came in cheapest for per click service cost. The company with the Xerox machine was the most expensive per click.

Konica has been the most professional and helpful in the process, followed by the company quoting the Canon. The company quoting the Xerox has been the least helpful (maybe because we already work with them, and they think they have it in the bag).

 

[AP90]

I believe it is the Versant 80P with high capacity feeder, standard booklet maker, external Fiery Rip with Compose/Impose. The quote came in around $80,000, but today the rep called back in a bit of a panic wanted to quote a step down machine (not sure what) because I mentioned that I'm getting quotes from some other companies (they are the company we currently use with our Canon...they have gone to Xerox machines now).

The Canon came in close to $70,000 (after their offer to buy our old machine for $8,000). The Konica was around $62,000. Both had the same set up as the Versant. And Konica came in cheapest for per click service cost. The company with the Xerox machine was the most expensive per click.

Konica has been the most professional and helpful in the process, followed by the company quoting the Canon. The company quoting the Xerox has been the least helpful (maybe because we already work with them, and they think they have it in the bag).

The company quoting the xerox? If I were you I would only go through Xerox directly and not some third party. I've heard plenty of horror stories on here of People complaining about 3rd parties.

 

[per771]

All of the companies we're working with are the authorized dealers in town. KM is called KM, and the other two are authorized dealers (one deals just with Xerox, and the other with Canon and Ricoh).

 

[gregbatch]

If we had to deal with mother Xerox, especially service, we would not have Xerox machines in our shop. We did it once and will never do it again. Our Xerox dealer (now a Xerox company) has been outstanding.

 

[Stickman42]

I believe it is the Versant 80P with high capacity feeder, standard booklet maker, external Fiery Rip with Compose/Impose. The quote came in around $80,000, but today the rep called back in a bit of a panic wanted to quote a step down machine (not sure what) because I mentioned that I'm getting quotes from some other companies (they are the company we currently use with our Canon...they have gone to Xerox machines now).

We bought directly from Xerox. We have always had great service techs, but now we hardly see them with the Versants. Our invoice says V80B - I can't find anything on a V80P. Our product code in the billing screen of the printer says we have a "B2R". Hope this helps.

We got the high cap feeder and the same Fiery config plus Color Profiler Suite. I'm sure the booklet maker is more expensive than the high cap stacker we got. Again, ours was $32K each delivered and installed.

 

[per771]

Just received another quote from Xerox for the Versant 80B. Much cheaper, "base" model. Problem is I have no idea what the difference is between it and the Versant 80P (performance press) except the 80P holds more paper in the high capacity feeder. Any ideas?

 

[gregbatch]

Speed on thick papers, and minus all the automated alignment and calibration like the V2100, are a couple of things.

 

[Stickman42]

Per771 - we do about 100K 11 x 17 10 pt. C1S prints on each machine each month. While ours don't run at full rated speed, it handles the volume nicely. We also got the ES-2000 spectrophotometers (which include Fiery Color Profiler Suite) along with Fiery Compose/Impose. We felt that with this package, the cost for the Pro version (with the inline spectrophotometer) was not worth it for us.