Low end vs High end (Visual Difference)

[Wolfie]

Well this is my first post.
I'm just looking to get experienced opinions from long term users of Digital Presses.

My main question is regarding quality, It's easy to read the promotional info from all the main competitors, but what I'd like to know is, is there a major difference between the quality coming off an office laser printer and a high end digital press? (I'm excluding an Indigo cause its not solid toner)

Same stock, same file, same environmental conditions.
Print a file to a high end Oki and to a high end Xerox, what will be the visual difference?

And both press accurately calibrated etc....
I'm talking best quality output from both, not out of the box printing.

 

[Craig]

That's a loaded question! One that may be more important is which will retain the quality level over the length of a run, unless you just plan on making one print of everything.

 

[X33]

there's definetely a difference ... if it is better or worse, that's up to you. Image Quality is relative and subjective.

you should see a difference in everything : highlights, midtones, lineart, text, reverse text, gradients, Pantones, color space, low res images, high res images, etc.