Digital BW, The Print

I've been making prints with an r220 and MIS R2 variable tone inkset (as suggested by one 
of Clayton's articles) using several different methods: 1) Black only, 2) using driver sliders 
as described by Clayton, 3) using Paul's ICC profiles and 4) a combination of Paul's ICC 
profiles to control density/tone and the Epson sliders to control temperature.

In all cases I am somewhat satisfied but mostly underwhelmed.  From what I had read 
here, I expected a significant improvement in print quality from my Canon MP800 with this 
r220.  However, this morning I printed out a few test files on my r220 and MP800, and 
there is very, very little difference.  In fact, in some cases, my MP800 (which is a fairly 
average Canon printer) performed better than the r220.

This file is one example (http://static.flickr.com/62/202370145_620711ee7a_o.jpg).  On 
my r220, the transition between solid black and lighter grey in the upper right corner is 
very abrubt.  It almost looks like I took a felt pen and colored it in.  On the MP800, 
however, it prints smoothly and appears basically as it does on my screen.  

A more detailed example which I would expect the r220 to really beat the MP800 is this: 
http://static.flickr.com/73/162049980_3126c60674_o.jpg.  But again, I see little 
difference between the MP800 and r220.

I keep telling myself there must be something I'm doing wrong, but I've gone over 
everything several times and all of the settings are correct.  At this point it seems the only 
reasonable conclusion is that the MP800 is a much better printer than I thought, or the 
r220 with MIS inks is not as great as I hoped.  

Now I'm wishing I would have got the 2200 or stretched and bought the r2400.  Do you 
have any thoughts?

Thanks,
Chris