The 1280 is a dye based photoprinter. It is a very old design by digital
standards but still in the Epson line-up because it gives superb results on
a variety of paper surfaces if you understand color management.
The 1280 is slow, not cheap to run, subject to clogging and the printhead
itself has a limited life expectancy and costs about half the price of a new
printer to replace.
Still I highly value my ancient 1280 and I have not seen any dye based
printer from Canon or HP that compares.
If you want a high quality printer and need to print CDs (why?) consider the
1800. The 1800 is pigment based and yields superb color, better b&w than the
1280 but subject to its own and generic Epson quirks.