8560MFP Halftone Grain Issues

Hey Guys,

I'm hoping someone smarter than me will know something about solid ink printers.
I recently purchased an 8560MFP solid ink printer. Prints look pretty good, but I'm having some issues and I'm not sure if it's just the way these printers are or if something is wrong. I'm used to printing on a Xerox 700 Digital Press & Xerox Doc 240 Splash.

This is what I'm finding:

Solid colors look pretty good overall, but the prints seem grainy compared to my other printers. I've done multiple Smear/Light Stripe cleanings and it's not helping anything.

Attached are some images to help paint the picture.

Here is a comparison between a Doc 240 and the 8560:


A Stripe test which overall looks pretty good to me:


CMY 100/50


K 100/50



All halftones "pretty much" look ok except the black. The halftones are grainy and whacked out. It also has a vertical line I can't get rid of that only shows on a screen of black.

Here's a full page of 50 K:


Here's K stepped in 10s:


What do you guys think?

For some reason, the gray tints look like ****. I'm wondering if this is creating the graininess? Now, These are printed on quality "enhanced" because I can't print High resolution. The xerox driver won't let me select it when printing. The only quality options are fast print & Enhanced.

Any input would be GREATLY appreciated!

I look forward to hearing from you guys!