barry@hobbiton.prime.com (04/01/89)
There have been a number of postings recently inquiring about the
Seikosha SP 1000 AP printer. I've tried replying directly to some
queries, but have had some of my replies get returned - hence this
posting. If you're looking for an inexpensive printer, you should
definitely consider the Seikosha.
My brother-in-law recently received a contract to produce a book
based on his Political Science doctoral disseration and decided to
buy a computer for use in writing it. In spite of my advice to buy
an IBM PC clone with a hard drive, he bought a Mac Plus and WriteNow
2.0. He decided to buy a Seikosha SP 1000 AP printer because it was
the least expensive alternative for getting printed information from
his system. The list price for the Seikosha is supposedly $299, but
I've seen it advertised for about $225 from several mail order
houses, which is what my brother-in-law paid when he bought it from
the local Boston distributor. You might find it advertised for less
in a non-Macintosh publication. The Seikosha comes with a two year
warranty, as opposed to 90 days with the ImageWriter II. There are a
number of authorized repair sites in the Boston area; there are
probably repair sites in most major areas.
The Seikosha is much smaller, quieter, and slower than the
ImageWriter II. A full, very complementary review of the Seikosha
appeared in the Februrary 1988 issue of The Macazine (RIP), so I'll
just summarize its features here. The Seikosha is a 9-pin printer
that emulates the ImageWriter I. It uses a pull tractor, as opposed
to the push tractor in the ImageWriter II, so paper handling should
be better. If you generate output that has a lot of consecutive
reverse line feeds, i.e. that pulls the paper back, the Seikosha
looks like it might have a problem. However, if most of the printing
advances the paper, as is usually the case, the Seikosha should jam
much less often than the ImageWriter II. The Seikosha comes with a
1200 byte printer buffer. This can be increased by 8KB if you add a
6264-LP15 static RAM chip (list about $4).
I tried a number of tests with the Seikosha on my SE at home using an
ImageWriter II as the standard. The output generated by the Seikosha
was virtually indistinguishable from that produced by the ImageWriter
II. Vertical lines were absolutely straight on the Seikosha, because
they were printed uni-directionally. The dot size used by the
ImageWriter II appears to be slightly smaller than that used by the
Seikosha, so lines drawn by the Seikosha appeared very slightly
thicker, but that could be the effect of using a brand new ribbon on
the Seikosha. The main difference was that it usually took about 3
times as long to generate a printed page with the Seikosha.
If speed isn't important, the Seikosha will certainly do the job.
Contact me if you need more information
Barry
Nothing in this posting reflects an official opinion of Prime Computer.
I have no connection with Seikosha, I just happen to be related to a
satisfied user.
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Barry Wolman | barry@s66.prime.com
Principal Technical Consultant | 492 Old Connecticut Path
Prime Computer | Framingham, MA 01701
| 508/626-1700, ext. 4187
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