Thanks for the info and links, Alan. That, and some similar write-ups I've seen previously indicate pretty conclusively that ABW should be able to make a better print, though I'm hard pressed to see it in the images I've tried. Perhaps that's because they're all on Ilford GFS or Epson EEF, and according to the info I've seen the biggest differences occur on mat papers. One question though - are you saying I can use Eric Chan's profiles to soft proof for the 7900/9900 printers? His website says the profiles probably won't give good results with other Epson models, but of course it can't hurt anything to try them. I never have, figuring this printer heads and screening pattern is probably quite different than the printers (3800 and 3880) the profiles are designed for. Absent a way to soft proof, iteratively making test prints, and tweaking curves and other settings can get the desired results, but at a high cost in terms of time and paper. Granted, the results are at least "decent" right away, but if you're picky and want to fine tune things, doing it without a soft proof is really tedious. I keep feeling like I'm missing some management step, but then ABW isn't a truly "managed" workflow, correct?
Sorry for the run-on questions, but I'm trying to figure out how to effectively and consistently use (or not) ABW once and for all.