Digital BW, The Print

I was active in this group ten years ago.  (Time flies, eh?)  I ended up selling my Epson 7600 and returning to the darkroom.

I just got my first digital camera, and thought I should revisit printing -- a lot happens in ten years, right?  So much, that I'm not sure how to make up for lost time.  I visited B+H last week.  The salesman said that the Canon Pro series were much less prone to clogging than the Epsons.  

I don't mean to clog the group with lots of traffic about basic questions.  But if someone would be kind enough to take the time to catch me up, (offlist is fine, I'm at sanders@mcnew.net) I would be grateful.  I'm looking for basic guidance into whether the Canon machines are worth considering, and whether the new printers and OEM inksets are good enough to avoid RIPs and third-party inksets, and whether any of the dye-based inks are worth considering for B+W printmaking.  A bigger printer would be nicer, but for a reintroduction to the medium a top-quality 8x10 printer would be fine for now.

Many thanks in advance to anyone who chooses to burn the time on a new oldtimer.

Regards,

Sanders McNew