@digitaldog: I think you answered my question in my
my post on Image conversion path yesterday [quote/] Not sure if this helps or not but this is what I was told by Adobe and was posted awhile back on the ColorSync list so it's not a secret

...
"ACR/LR does perform internal color transforms as needed to carry out its various image processing routines (e.g., noise reduction, vibrance, etc.). However, this is all done internally and has no real connection to the user-specified color space of the rendered output file (e.g., sRGB, Adobe RGB, etc.)." There may be some 'kind' of PCS used as there has to be some translation above, but it isn't Lab. [/quote]
I think I've been trying to force the capture to print process into too simplistic a model. For Lightroom and ACR users, the conversions that happen up to the point of hand-off to an external device (or Photoshop) are internal to the Adobe raw converter.
I appreciate your help on this and, a couple of years ago for setting me on the right path to color management.