Have been getting very nice profiles with my Spyder3 Print, which cost about $300. Used with my 9880 they are at least as good as canned profiles for almost any paper, and way better for the canned profiles from many non-Epson branded media manufacturers, especially with the canvases.
Before spending money on profiling systems you should try your printer with the manufacturers' profiles for the media you plan to use. Then go on to custom profiling if you see the need.
Because of the way manufacturers set up their driver software doing your own profiles can be a little trickier than it should be...there are settings sometimes a few menus deep that can greatly affect the results. For starters you should take a look the checklist from Cathys Profiles, which is a very good introduction to all the possible profiling gotchas.
