Digital BW, The Print

Howard, You must be doing something wrong! The MIS hextone and quad
variable tone inks are GREAT! Top quality prints with an 1160, 1200,
1280 and I'm sure the 1270.

Do you have the Double Density, or VM black ink? The regular black isn't
all that black. Are you using Paul Roark's curves and converting your
files to RGB before printing? 

Are you CERTAIN you have the inks in the right order?  This order is not
the same as Cone's Piezo inks.

Also there is no pigmented black ink that is absolutely as black as
Epson's DYE black ink. MIS VM black is as close as you'll get. It's very
close. Piezo Black is also very close, but very expensive. You should
not have to use +25 contrast in the epson sliders.

> In order to get the MIS Quad prints to even BEGIN to approach the
> quality of the plain old Epson black ink prints I had to turn the
> contrast in the printer driver up to +25(!) and the mode to 'photo
> realistic'. 

wrong settings!

This gave me 'decent' prints rather than the very soft
> prints I originally got but the prints have nowhere near the deep
> blacks of the prints made with the standard Epson black cartridge!

That's why I know you're settings aren't right. The black VM ink in
actual prints are nearly indistinguishable from epson's black ink. In a
large square of black, Epson's dye ink is indeed the blackest of all the inks.

You should be using Photo Inkjet Paper for the Media Setting,
and "Same as Source" in the printer dialogue box.
Use "automatic" in the Color Controls box.

> Perhaps a problem with pigment ink viscosity?

not too likely. I've never seen this problem.
> 
> Very disappointing. The inks have a problem, for sure!

Nope, you must have one or more settings wrong. 

> I used curves as per Paul Roark from the MIS site.

I've been using Paul's curves for about 6 months or more, and the
quality is absolutely equal to piezo prints.
 

> By the way, when I returned to the Epson Ink, I got gorgeous prints
> again!

Yes, but they won't last too long....

Jerry