Digital BW, The Print

I'm just checking in to see of there have been any significant new 
developments in digital BW printing.    Last time I was here (6 
months or so ago?)  the major choices (in no particular order) were:

Dedicated (usually Epson) BW printer with 3rd party 
quadtone/hextone/septone inks

Epson 2200 with native inks and a RIP (Epson seems to have 
discontinued their $200 RIP, leaving 3rd party RIPS $400 and up).   
The RIP is necessary to solve the inherent metamerism in the U/C 
inks.

Epson 2200 using only the black ink.

Are there any significant new options since then?   I saw an HP 
printer in a CompUSA that looked like it had pretty good BW but it 
was only 8x10 and they wouldn't let me take a print home to check 
for metamerism.  Does Epson have any serious printer competition 
from anyone?