[Leica] OT: Home laser printer

[pklein at threshinc.com (Peter Klein)]

I am contemplating buying a black and white home laser printer.  Our 
vintage 1994 HP Deskjet 500 finally died.  I think I got my money's 
worth out of that one.  :-)  So I turn to the infinite-seeming knowledge 
base of this group.

Requirements:
* My wife needs to be able to print a dozen pages per day, give or take, 
of letter-size scratch documents for translation (not final copies, 
those are emailed).
* The printer must be able to print legal size (8.5x14) as well as 
standard letter size. I don't mind if it must be fed from a secondary 
manual-load tray.  I need to print music from PDFs or scanned documents, 
at up to legal size (9x12" sheet music seems to print quite readably on 
legal-size paper, slightly reduced). Any bigger than that, and I'll use 
my Epson R1800 with carbon ink, or go to Kinko's.
* Reliability is key. I don't want a cheap piece of junk pre-programmed 
to die shortly after the warrantee expires, or to only take overly 
expensive consumables (which is why Lexmark is out).
* The printer should be networkable, preferably via wireless. I don't 
mind networking via an external network/print box if it will save 
substantial money.

I've pretty much decided on laser rather than inkjet. From what I've 
read, laser means better quality and lower long-term cost (unless you 
folks have different experience).  And no clogging.  I already have 2 
photo inkjet printers, an Epson R200 for color and an R1800 with 
cartridges hand-filled with MIS Eboni carbon ink for B&W. The latter 
actually prints documents nicely, but I don't want to be filling 
cartridges all the time for my wife's language translation business.

I thought about getting an all-in-one (scan/fax/copy/print).  This would 
be convenient some of the time.  But my experience at work is that the 
all-in-one's tend to have complex problems. And if the scanner dies, it 
may stop printing, too (firmware self-test failure).  Repair is not 
economical, so you have to buy a new one. Also, the all-in-one's need 
for you to install all the manufacturer's software, which in HPs case is 
universally awful. I think I'd be better off with a simple laser printer 
and getting a flatbed for music and old family photo scanning.

I'm inclined towards HP but will entertain other suggestions.  This week 
Office Depot/Max and Best Buy all have sales going on.  There seem to be 
three price-classes, $150, $250 and $300 on the B&W printer-only models, 
with $30-$50 off this week.

Any thoughts?

--Peter