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DX4 Head vs DX7 Head?

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player

New Member
Are the DX7 heads way better than the DX4 heads? Do the DX4 heads still have any advantages?

I do know on an 8 channel printer the DX4 head unit is way cheaper to fix if something goes wrong with one channel. Replacing 1 DX4 head is $1200 vs a DX7 which can be $3k plus...

Any info and or experience is appreciated.
 
SightLine

SightLine

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Skipping right over the DX5....

But yeah the DX7 is a couple of generations newer technology. Sure a single DX7 head is more expensive than a single DX4 but also consider the difficulties in aligning (and re-aligning if you happen to bump it or get a slight head strike or something) 4 independent heads to each other versus a single head that just needs to be installed straight. This also goes for DX5 based machines. The DX4 heads came out well over 10 years ago and are pretty ancient by technology standards.

From the standpoint of having both DX4 and DX5 based Mimaki printers over the years I can say this. We started off with a JV3-160SP 4 head DX4 based machine back in 2003 and ran that machine hard for many years. It was a workhorse and paid for itself many many times over. It was also a fiddly maintenance heavy bear to keep it printing "just right" with frequent cleaning, adjusting, replacing caps, dampers, etc. Probably 5 years ago I bought our newer generation JV33 which has a single DX5 head. Its faster, better print quality, and order of magnitude less maintenance, also a workhorse, and I've replaced the head once and that took me about 30 minutes to do it myself. Zero alignment issues and we only really give the capping station and bottom of a head a good manual cleaning about once a month. Far far less fiddly and far less manual cleaning and maintenance needed.

The even newer generation DX7 head based machines I have no personal experience with but I can only imagine it would be similar to the DX5 based machines but even more improved. If I were in the market for a machine, while the dirt cheap prices on the ancient DX4 4 head based machines are very attractive that is because of just that.... they are ancient dinosaurs by todays standards. Can they still produce absolutely beautiful prints and run great, of course they can. But even a generation newer single DX5 head JV33 can run circles around an older JV3 at very little additional cost for a good condition used one.
 
rjssigns

rjssigns

Active Member
If I were in the market for a new printer I'd be getting a dual DX-7 printer like the Mutoh 1638x. 1000 sq. ft. per hour @ 360x360.

Speed is where it's at in today's market.
 
SightLine

SightLine

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Another excellent option for new machines are the new Mimaki JV-150 single head or for raw speed the dual head JV-300 machines. Both use the same newest print heads, have a wave type anti-banding system, auto nozzle out detection and recovery, etc. The 300 models also now come stock with Mimaki's 2 liter per color bulk ink system. Essentially the same speed as the new Mutoh. The Mutoh does have a built in spectrophotometer though which is a nice add on.

Both would probably be excellent machines but I'm only personally familiar with Mimaki machines. I do know Mimaki machines are absolute workhorses and if you are a do it yourselfer that they have some of the widest parts availability and some of the earliest to have aftermarket ink options, parts, etc.... Either one though is going to run over 25k to buy since they are both brand new models.
 
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lubo1972

New Member
Personaly I don't like DX5/DX7 heads. Only advantage is speed on two head based machines. If you have one dead color on DX4 machine, you spent about 500 euro for repair. If you have same on DX7 machine, repair cost much more. Also, aligment of two DX7 heads is nearly impossible. This is based on mine experience with Roland SC545 and Mimaki JV300. We got dead head after only 11 monts of printing.
 
C5 Service&Repair

C5 Service&Repair

New Member
Dx4 machines and DX7 machines are completely different. While they both print (duh), the DX4 is limited in DPI and speed. A dual head DX7 machine is faster, higher quality, and uses the newer technology inks.
That said, one of my favorite machines is the Roland XC-540.
The XR-640 would be my choice of printers right now. A dual DX7 head machine is easy to align, contrary to what lubo said.
 
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Terry01

New Member
C5 Service&Repair said:
Dx4 machines and DX7 machines are completely different. While they both print (duh), the DX4 is limited in DPI and speed. A dual head DX7 machine is faster, higher quality, and uses the newer technology inks.
That said, one of my favorite machines is the Roland XC-540.
The XR-640 would be my choice of printers right now. A dual DX7 head machine is easy to align, contrary to what lubo said.
Click to expand...

How would Lubo go with a JV5.. :)
 
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lubo1972

New Member
Our customers say that our old Roland prints better than new JV300. Also two weeks ago one head stop printing one chanel of magenta so we used only one. We are surprised how better is resolution on small text. I think that this is aligment based problem. About JV5, I never saw first models printing on expos. As I know that is because of imposible aligment ot heads. Later Mimaki fixed it.
Newer machines is very user friendly. It is easy for operators. But they will not last that longer like old dinosaurus like SC545 and JV3. Just too much plastic inside :)

Sorry for bad English.
 
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