Also, reading through the rest of this topic i would say, "don't feed the troll".
Deanwork and Gromit should start their own forum
Three things come to mind.
First . . . I don't know Gromit, but he simply seems to be passionate about what he believes. John (Deanwork) is a world class printer, and he produces black and white prints at a level of quality few are able to achieve.
Second. . . The scope of this forum is not limited to colour work, nor is it limited to manufacturer provided black and white solutions. While many here are satisfied with out of the box solutions, some desire to go further and deeper. Just as there is nothing wrong with those who have chosen the manufacturer's solution, there is nothing wrong with those who wish to go beyond this.
Third. . . The OP said "I'm searching for advanced info about b&w printing with Epson 9880 and 9890, links - books, everything is welcome.". We've done a poor job in responding to that.
Epson's ABW has made good quality b/w printing readily available to everyone. RIP's are no longer required to get nice prints. However, there are some compromises inherent to ABW, and some limitations. For example, the output may, or may not, be truly linear. The utility already mentioned, Create-ICC which comes as part of QTR (
www.quadtonerip.com), is a relatively easy and inexpensive way to address this. You will need a device to measure density (e.g. a spectro) to use it.
ABW uses colour inks in addition to black (K), to create a neutral print. The can lead to metamerism, and also impact print light-fastness. Using QTR to directly control K, and to purposefully choose which colours to add and by how much, can improve on this. QTR gives you full control over ink limits, ink partitioning and linearization. This kind of control also means you have the abilty to print split tones, which is something ABW cannot do. QTR supports the 9880.
There is a Yahoo forum for QTR. . .
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/QuadtoneRIP/There is also a Yahoo forum dedicated to black and white inkjet printing. QTR, ABW and various other topics, including custom ink mixing, are discussed. . . .
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/Whether you're interested in moving to a monochrome ink set, or not, there is a lot of material at Jon Cone's site, and on his Piezography Blog, that will still be helpful in general terms. . .
http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.362672/it.I/id.119/.f?sc=15&category=27707#http://www.piezography.com/PiezoPress/category/blog/page/4/In the blog above, I would start on the oldest page (#4) and work forward.
As a final comment I will say that if you're open to working with dedicated monochrome inks you will be rewarded with smoother gradations, longer tonal ranges, virtually no metamerism and better detail. There is an investment required, which you may or may feel to be worthwhile.
I truly hope you find some of the above helpful.
Terry.