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Reviews (6)
May 06, 2009
Big, old, tank of a printer
We've been using a small fleet of these printers here for just under ten years. They have their niggles and problems like any piece of computer hardware, but we've kept with them because of overall reliability. They never pissed us off enough to move on and that's saying alot around here.
Our first cost us $1k new in the spring of 2001. It's still running. We use them hard enough to spend $500 apeice on high end bulk ink systems as well (not the low end CIS systems available here on eBay, sadly-- those are asking for trouble as they circumvent the printer's pressurized ink feed system. I tried two and threw them away.)
Pros: They just keep working. No clogging, no complaints, they just chug right along and take care of themselves. Perfect compatability with Windows, Mac and Linux/UNIX. Some of the best output quality I've seen in a four-color printer. The built-in Postscript renderer provides much nicer results then pre-rendered pages.
Cons: They're slow. Draft mode is quite fast, but the decent output quality modes definitely are not. They're also big and ugly :-)
One person said the pickup rollers have trouble with some kinds of paper-- this is true, and was true when ours were new. Papers with a very smooth/hard polished bond surface may have pick-up issues in the top tray. The bottom tray doesn't seem to have the same problem.
These printers seem to have two major potential service problems:
The main logic boards in several production runs have a problem with the processor (BGA package) lifting itself partially off the main logic board due to repeated thermal flexing and marginal manufacturing tolerances. The symptoms: error 181, error 462, the printer randomly powering off, or occasional black lines/blocks or other hard glitches appearing in the printed output. The fix is to reseat the main processor chip with a heat gun (the way it was soldered to the board to begin with). This is the same problem and same fix as the infamous XBox360 'circle of death' flaw. We have fixed this problem in two of our own printers here without further problems.
Second problem is the horizontal encoder strip wears out and the sensor picks up debris worn off the strip and becomes too dirty to function (error 461 during 'Auto Align'). Solution is to replace the strip (they cost $5) and clean the sensor pickup. The strip itself will be damaged by both water and alcohol, so cleaning it isn't really an option.
We had one printer opened up for service turn out to have a blown cap in the PSU (the black skinny Rubicon(!) 270uF) but this does not seem to be a pattern. We checked all the other printer PSUs after finding this one blown cap and they were still solid after ten years of 24/7.
If you buy one of these and it gets through the diagnotic pages, color calibrate and auto-align, it's probably good to go almost forever. A new low-end color laser will kick this printer's butt all over the place. But you can't get a new color laser for $50 that will last as long and work out of the box with every OS made in the last ten years (if you find one, let me know!)
Feb 04, 2020
One of Tek's all-time best products
1 of 1 found this helpful Most of the Tek scopes of this era are honestly duds. But the probes--- oh my goodness, the probes are wonderful. Were it not for the gorgeous, amazing, wonderful to use probes, I'd have jumped to Agilent or LeCroy long ago. But the probes are that good, and this is one of the cream of the crop. No one else had anything as good as the TekProbe-era differential probes.
Jan 20, 2010
Disappointing, heard (and designed) better for cheaper
Pros: nice drivers, seemingly nice build quality.
Cons: very boxy sound. Response down to 50Hz? Pure fanatasy unless you mean 'barely measurable response down to 50Hz'. Actual measured figure is about 200Hz.
I'm used to much higher-end studio monitors (I both buy and design/build my own). My professional job is sound engineering and audio software.
But cheap ($100-ish), self-powered computer speakers are really useful little things. I used to buy them by the crate for projects. I also use them wherever I don't want to risk damaging something more expensive.
To date the best sounding computer speakers I'd ever found for $100 were the Bose MediaMates (apparently discontinued). They weren't perfect and had some quality control / durability problems, but when they were still working they sounded great. They measured remarkably flat, smooth, controlled bass and souded as good as the measurements. They didn't suck without a sub even though you still missed it. Unfortunately, mine are dying pair by pair. I bought a couple T40s to try out as replacements.
The T40s, in direct comparison, are a real letdown. Amemic and peaky, its as if Creative never even tried to get any of the acoustic details right.
The claimed response down to 50Hz is complete hogwash. The measured f3 point is a bit over 200 Hz (the measured f3 point on the MediaMates was 80Hz and they sound like they have built in subs in comparison! They're less than half the size.) I don't hear any 'hollowness' claimed by other reviewers. There's alot of boxiness (is this what others meant?) due to strong response humps/ripples between 200 and 350 and a general response bulge that doesn't flatten out until 1kHz or so... it sounds alot like a botched EBS design. Some designer really screwed up.
In summary, when you hear the MediaMate (half the size of the T40) you wonder where the rest of the speaker is hidden. When you hear the T40 you wonder why it needs to be so big.
On the plus side, things smooth out as the frequency climbs. They sound reasonably good paired with a sub (listening now tied to an old Yamaha YSTMSW10). They're still too boxy, but they're otherwise well damped above the low midrage and the highs are crisp enough.
But don't even think about using them minus a sub. Better yet listen around for something better. I'm solidly disappointed in my purchase.