Yes you are very correct on the hard time making a decision. Dropping cash on a full shop setup st one time should be hard for anyone to make a decision on. The issue I come to is color. I know as soon as i say all this I am going to have color management people tell me it's all about profile. Ow I do understand that but you will. It get the colors out of any Roland or mutoh or any other printer for that matter if it doesn't have the same color combination. The company uses 2 mimaka I think that's right. Both set up with dual cmyk????!?
We have a very dull color market around here. You never see anything bright or anything that really stands out more than the rest. Now it may be profiles, it may be printers and it may simply be the designers but there is a huge market for brighter and bolder here. I will attach a couple pictures that I fell in love with a while back simply because of the colors. There is a demand for it but hardly no one does it.
Yes, it is all about combination of ink, substrate, profile and designers ability. I think most important thing is ink itself. Higher the pigment load in it easier to get bright colors, but the other hand it creates problems to the printer like clogged nozzles, build-ups in pumps and lines etc. If number of colors less (like 4 colors) easier to get bright solid colors but difficult to get gradients, in other hand 8 colors or more have more color gamut good for photorealistic images but difficult to get extreme brights. I'm not saying it is not achievable but you might need help from specialists to make profile correctly. For example, if you need red color on 4 color printer you play only with M and Y, but 10 color printer you need to adjust M, Y, Lm, and R. I had Mimaki's JV3, JV4 and JV5. But don't mislead by this pictures, it has increased contrast.
According to your market, I've been to the US several times, my multi entry visa will expire in 2024, so I have seen things around there.
Most important thing is choosing the correct printer, it will determine your future either you grow or fail.
That's why I suggest these 2 printers. But it's up to you follow or not. I'm not selling these things, also I'm not your competitor and not a tech. But where I live, people saying "a suffered old lady's advice is better than an unexperienced doctor's".
My rule number 1. don't buy any printer with multi channel printhead. It is too risky, after you settled (maybe become rich) you might play with it, but not now.
If I have Epson S80, I print only photos or repro artwork on fine art canvas. That's the purpose.
If you do any bright oranges, you will be impressed!! It make the oranges off of my other printers look like mud. haha
