Epson Artisan 837 Pic Quality vs HP 7525? Upgrade worth the hassle?

[kgvickers]

I got an HP 7525 for free off the neighbor's trash pile. Clogged print head. 30 hours of patient soaking and it's working fine. I just happen to have plenty of 564 cart refill ink from my days of using the CISS with my now-dead HP C309a.

So I have no money invested in the 7525 but I've got an itch to try the Epson Artisan 837. I've found an old-stock-new-in-box one for $100.

Based on all the reviews I've read the picture quality of the 837 is excellent. The HP is not bad but I can see where there's room for improvement.

The Epson uses 6 colors, all dye. The HP uses 5 colors, 4 dye (photo black, cyan, magenta, yellow) and 1 pigment black. The numbers alone imply the Epson will have a better color spectrum but I've not done a side-by-side.

Anyone here done a side by side comparison of these two? If so, do you think it would be worth the hassle to flip the HP and get the Epson?

Thanks!

Keith

 

[annel]

No side by side comparison but I have had the Epson 710 and 810 and have loved them both. I would recommend the 837. LJH.ent has a CISS or refillables for it.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

the number of colors don't make the difference, light photo colors don't add to the color saturation. There are probably other technical parameters you can compare - the droplet size - typically 1.5 picolitres for the Epson photo printers, about 1 -2 pl for the typical Canon printers, they use three nozzle rows for 3 different droplet sizes with 1 pl the smallest ones, and 3 - 4pl for the Epson universal 4 colors printers, I don't know the values for HP printers. The diference may become visible in lighter color areas, the inidvidual droplets are less visible when they are smaller , and are lighter in color. And mechanical tolerances of the print mechanism may have some impact on the print quality. Printers may differ as well in some other aspect - e.g. borderless printing, max customer specified paper length, paper handling and issues with stiffer and heavier photo paper with models feeding from the bottom. And you may think about the inks, in original cartridges, refill, 3rd party cartridges and your print volume of photos to justify a photo printer.