Roland 540vp or sp?

You tell us. How much do you want to be able to print per day or week. What are you printing on etc etc.

 

In a simple answer - YES. That and the Roland Warranty.

1 year SP540i
2 year VP540i

 

Yes the speed is the "simple answer", but to get the speed (VP vs SP) the VP lays down a larger dot size. In my opinion the SP prints a better print, but it moves at a snails' pace. You can't go wrong with either, both are great machines.

My .02
GTS_Tech

 

I have the VP540. I would suggest going with the VP. You won't regret having the ability to print faster when needed and when quality is what you want, you can slow it down and have that as well. Plus the extra year warranty is very nice also.

 

I have a friend that has an SP. When he showed it to me he said "You know what the SP stands for don't you? Slow Poke."

 

I don't find the SP to be all that bad really. Using Wasatch SoftRIP, I yield 64 SFPH for 99% of my prints, which is exactly 2X what Roland says it will produce (720x720x8-pass). Yes, a finely tuned machine with the right RIP can in fact do that. I also made a banner profile that is something like 540x360x4-pass and it yields right around 165 SFPH. Granted, these aren't neck-breaking speeds by any stretch, but very palatable.

 

I see that you use Wasatch. What do you think of it? I have been contemplating getting this to use with my VP, but have heard mixed feelings on it. Would you recommend it over VersaWorks?

 

VP

 

Hard to say for me as I've never used Versaworks. When I got my printer, VW sucked from all reports I got, so I went with SoftRIP right out of the gate. I started with I think 5.1 or thereabouts, I'm now using 6.3 or 6.5. I like it just fine, but cannot compare it to VW w/o having used both. I have heard that VW has improved quite a bit since then (over 4 yrs now).

 

Warranty in Australia is 5 years across all machines. So that isnt a consideration.

Is the VP a four head machine?

I know the SP is a two head machine.

 

The SP has been great for us, we have had it for around 3-4 years now. the only time it really takes a while to print is wraps when we print them here. For most larger jobs we have found it more economical to just sub them out recently. print quality is excellent on regular speed on low head heighth.