I don't use
DTG - I read other
DTG user's posts and get the heebie jeebies. If I did I would go for the Mimaki direct to fabric roll. I was just looking at it - I forget which model it is but it is quite expensive. I would certainly love to do away with the paper.
The smaller
DTG's currently on the market are too small for sports jerseys. A 7880 is actually too small for current demands. The average men's jersey would not fit on the 78xx armpit to armpit. On a cut-and-sew, the most in the width you could go for a full bleed would be a kids' size large team jersey. That barely squeezes on there (I mean, for example, the front as one single panel).
Six of the carts from the 7800 and 9800 are compatible with the 7880 and 9880. This is nice as far as having a back up printer (which you will need eventually).
We chose the 9880 to add to our bank. Supposedly the head is teflon covered and clogs less. I'm not sure how well that works but here's hoping! The 9800 does not have that teflon, as I was told.
We looked at the Rolands but they're expensive and won't be serviced unless you have a dealer near you. They are higher end. We also considered the Mimaki but same thing - dealer serviced which isn't so easy where I am. These two are both more expensive than Mutohs or Epsons. I don't know how easy they are to maintain but I'd love to find out.
The Epsons you can service yourself mostly. Head and damper changes are not too hard to do. They are fairly simple machines really.
The Mutohs are inexpensive - under $10k. I don't know much about these as far as carts and chip resetting, maintenance and all that. I was trying to find out but to no avail. Any Mutoh users out there?
For the price of one Roland you can have a whole bank of Epson 9880's. But Roland's got size and various other options you can't get with the Epsons.
Cost might solve your confusion somewhat :-) unless you've got $50k to fling around.
Epsons are easy maintenance. I've been fairly happy. I'm not happy with Epson's mentality of trying to force you to buy new carts all the time. You are able to re-set the carts (most of the time, but not always) ditto the maintenance tank. To operate seamlessly you will need an extra maintenance tank, extra chip resetters, extra carts. You can keep rotating your cart sets around. I don't know how many carts Epson can keep in its memory. I know for a fact it's at least 2. Does anyone else know? You'd probably need 4 sets of carts I suspect. The chip resetter works (usually). I have my Light Light Black turned off so I never need that one. I just keep that nozzle clear with the nozzle utility.
I had a nightmare of a day where I had a clogged head, a cart that wouldn't reset, a full maintenance tank that wouldn't reset and then my chip resetter died all at the same time. Then that particular cart still would not reset even with the new chip resetter.
Most of the problems are simple to solve but you must have backups ready. Now I have extra sets of carts, 2 extra maintenance tanks, extra chip resetters and another printer coming in. All of these problems needn't exist if Epson wasn't so proprietary. They don't care about the environment. I would love to know how Roland, Mutoh and Mimaki compare in that respect.
If you only need a small printer I would recommend the Epson 7880 to bypass the need for CIS. It is well worth the extra money and can make printing so much more fun!
I think the printing quality is good, no matter which you choose. The Epsons have been perfect for me. If they could solve clogged heads once and for all, they'd be a dream come true!
All hail the chip resetter!
Epson Stylus 7880 or 9880 
Re: Epson Stylus 7880 or 9880 
Re: Epson Stylus 7880 or 9880 
I'm not sure if they just didn't know how to properly print on fabric or that was it! They also showed me a sample from the same printer but using transfer paper and the results were great! But I don't see a point on investing money and having to still go through paper transfers... 
