Ready to Buy- Advice on Roland VG or SG?

[Speedsterbeast]

I started to hijack another thread about this, and I still would like some advice, so I thought I'd post a new thread.

I'm ready to pull the trigger on a Roland SG540 or VG540.
I know the spec. differences already.
I'm still having a hard time making a decision.

My current printer is an SP300V
I'm a one-man operation- always busy, but not what you'd call a high-production shop so speed isn't a super big plus for me.
The price difference for where I am between the 2 is $5,000.

For the $5,000 (upgrade to VG) I get a take up reel (don't think I'll use it) , a 3rd year warranty through a Roland promo, and the higher speed OR the better gray colours.

I've never been happy with my gray from my SP300V (looks like green)

My questions-

Is the gray from the new SG (4- colour configuration) going to blow my SP300V away, or will I still be disappointed?

Are most people setting up their VG with dual CMYK or opting for the light black configuration?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[LFC911]

Send your files to Roland and have them printed on both and then decide.

 

[DunbarPG]

I am also a one man graphics department. Used the SP300V for years, and upgraded to the VG540 about 3 months ago. I haven't used the take-up reel yet, largest prints I usually get a call for are 8ft banners. Dual CMYK set-up and print speed is amazing. For example a large run of 6ft wall graphics, took 48 minutes each on the SP, and 6 minutes each on the VG. Greys are nice, print quality is leaps and bounds above the SP. Even though the ink pouches have a much higher capacity than the 220 cartridges I run in the SP, it drinks the stuff. The VG is sweet, but I imagine the SG would be comparable in quality, if print speed and the take-up reel aren't big concerns.

 

[CanuckSigns]

I am also a one man graphics department. Used the SP300V for years, and upgraded to the VG540 about 3 months ago. I haven't used the take-up reel yet, largest prints I usually get a call for are 8ft banners. Dual CMYK set-up and print speed is amazing. For example a large run of 6ft wall graphics, took 48 minutes each on the SP, and 6 minutes each on the VG. Greys are nice, print quality is leaps and bounds above the SP. Even though the ink pouches have a much higher capacity than the 220 cartridges I run in the SP, it drinks the stuff. The VG is sweet, but I imagine the SG would be comparable in quality, if print speed and the take-up reel aren't big concerns.

We have the VG, and haven't noticed a huge increase in the amount of ink we go through, however I don't believe the 30% ink savings that roland claims, if anything is uses a bit more ink than our old VS. One think to keep in mind is that the VG and SG both use a cleaning fluid cartridge that regularly dumps into the waste tank, so if you notice the ink take filling up faster it most likely cleaning fluid more so than ink.

 

[DunbarPG]

It may not be using much more ink. My workload has tripled since getting the VG, so it may just seem like it's using more ink because I am changing pouches much more frequently than I changed cartridges in the SP.

 

[-Fusion]

I recently was contemplating the same machines. I ended up having one ofy files ran on both machines on the same media. I liked how the VG with 7 colors looks over the 4 color. Now I make a product that it meant to be viewable at 12-18" and you can really tell at that point the two prints side by side. If you step back 4' they only noticeable difference was the greys and radiance, slightly. I'm still new to all of this but depending on what you plan on running on the machine is choose from there.

 

[Warmoth]

Our shop just got a VG540 last week. We went double CMYK - The type of printing we do is typically less photographic and more industrial. We had to take the increased speed, it's just more logical for our setup. So yes the grey suffers...

We've run a SP-300, and currently still run a SP-540. All of the machines suffer from the same greeish-grey. The VG540 does seem much better though. (This is with just one week of evaluation)
Greys aside, the VG540 is blazingly fast compared to our past Rolands. The Take up Reel is also great.

The new "Dual Versaworks" is a little disappointing. It supposedly supports multi-threading (CPU), however the RIP speed shows otherwise. It RIPS slow. Me and the tech talked about this a bit. He believes it's a promising software, just needs a few updates to it. To the naked eye, it looks just like the regular Versaworks, so there's no additional learning. But under the hood there are some improvements to file support

Overall, we're currently very happy with our purchase.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Our shop just got a VG540 last week. We went double CMYK - The type of printing we do is typically less photographic and more industrial. We had to take the increased speed, it's just more logical for our setup. So yes the grey suffers...

We've run a SP-300, and currently still run a SP-540. All of the machines suffer from the same greeish-grey. The VG540 does seem much better though. (This is with just one week of evaluation)
Greys aside, the VG540 is blazingly fast compared to our past Rolands. The Take up Reel is also great.

The new "Dual Versaworks" is a little disappointing. It supposedly supports multi-threading (CPU), however the RIP speed shows otherwise. It RIPS slow. Me and the tech talked about this a bit. He believes it's a promising software, just needs a few updates to it. To the naked eye, it looks just like the regular Versaworks, so there's no additional learning. But under the hood there are some improvements to file support

Overall, we're currently very happy with our purchase.

In versaworks Duel, under the Quality tab, try changing the halftone setting to "Dither" by default it's "Error Diffusion" this fixed our slow rip speeds issue.

 

[davemgd]

The gray on my SG prints awesome vs. my sp300v.

 

[Catherineeee]

hello everyone,

its seems that you were happy with the roland printers. i have been interested and been checking the difference in terms of speed/printmodes (indoor and outdoor) of SG540 and SP540, ive gone with their site but i got few infos. Do you guys know a link or file wherein i could get these info pls.


TIA!.