Digital BW, The Print

I bought an Epson 3000 when it was considered to be the premier 
printer for Piezography. This was before we figured out that banding 
could not be cured on some printers with the Piezo driver and 
unfortunately I had one. I sold the 3000 and switched to an 1160. I 
then gave up on quads except for very specific prints where warm 
tones and low Dmax was acceptable. Now, with new materials and 
particularly coatings, it looks like quality can actually exceed 
silver. I'm ready to make the clean break with the darkroom. I have 
two 1160's but I really need a wider printer.

What are the current opinions of the 3000 for quadtones? 

Is it significantly less sharp than the 1160?

Has the Piezo driver banding problem been resolved?

Is a used 3000 a lot more likely to suffer from banding?

If I end up with a 3000 that won't tolerate the Piezo driver, how 
much am I giving up? How do the Epson Driver /separation workflows 
perform on the 3000?

How does the MIS variable tone ink set perform with only 3 black/gray 
inks?

Thanks for the help,

Robert