I’m an SC P7570 owner, and VERY early adopter. It was a nightmare in the beginning. Long story that I will not reiterate here - a simple search should yield plenty of info.
“Today” after over 10 driver, firmware and EMI updates (cumulatively) the printer is “mostly” reliable. But problems still abound for many using the 44” version, and even on the 24” version I’m careful to not step on any of the known landmines.
To wit:
I no longer allow the printer to get to the end of a roll of paper. I add a 30” fudge factor to my paper use spreadsheet, and quit when I get to that last (wasted) 30”. I sometimes cut this remainder into usable sheet sizes. “Someitmes” - but it is often more time consuming and a PITA than it’s worth in terms of the cost of wastage. I don’t recall if Keith mentions getting to the end of a roll successfully w/o it ripping the paper off the core, and dragging tape through the rollers. This makes a horrendous noise, and makes an incredible mess that takes some time to remove all the debris. If he has not come successfully to the end of a roll of say, Epson Legacy Platine, I would consider his review “excellent” but not complete. It isn’t his intention, or “job” to look at all the anecdotal (albeit real) information on the problems / challenges of the various printers he has the opportunity to test. I get that. But at the same time, it could easily lead to a misapprehension of the printer “in toto” in actual use. I’m not a high production shop. I’m a boutique fine art, low volume, print shop. So, it isn’t just a “high production” situation that will see these issues. It’s entirely possible to print with one of these machines for a relatively short period and encounter zero problems. There are lots more issues that I could elucidate, but again, a look at the Epson Wide Format User List group, or a search on this site and others will fill anyone in who is interested. And as been mentioned above, the folk having these issues are typically VERY experienced printers, with many years of successful printing on earlier versions of Epson’s large format printers. So it isn’t lack of experience, or not understanding creating appropriate custom media types and registering them to the printer, or a lack of high quality custom ICC profiles.
I love my 7570, but it is far from perfect, and I have to be uber careful with it in order to not run afoul of some of its more “interesting quirks.”
Rand