Funny, exactly the opposite of my experience...
I had an Epson Stylus PHOTO 1280, complete with bulk (CIS) ink tanks. This thing was the biggest piece of shit I've ever seen. Built like the cheap crap that it was. The head would clog constantly. A bronze bushing regularly slipped out of it, which had to be pushed back in. It splotched and splattered - especially on borderless prints. It ate ink (and deposited it in the sump) like it was free - which sadly, it most certainly wasn't. Even the third-party tanks sucked and the yellow leaked the entire time I had it. All of which is a shame because the colors never came out right and you needed to print several versions to get (reasonably close) to what you saw on the screen. I tossed the whole blessed thing in the trash with a smile.
To replace it, I picked up a Canon PIXMA Pro9000 Mark I. Built like a tank, never had a single issue with it as far as the head clogging, parts falling out or failing and it seemed pretty good on ink. Except there was a slight design flaw... And it became VERY unreliable because of a phantom error. Of course, by now it was out of warranty.
Canon was bundling these printers with their cameras so there was a FLOOD of them on forums - people wanting to get the camera for cheap and ditch the printers. So rather than repair the original I grabbed a brand new ("used" or secondhand) Mark II. Minor updates, nothing crazy - but no more issues and it's been rock solid since. And the prints are incredible! I have over a dozen hanging on the walls of my house.
Of course, newer and more high-end printers are better than the consumer/commodity models, regardless of manufacturer. And I've heard decent things about newer Epson printers. Maybe it was just my luck, or the 1280 was a really bad model. But I swore I'd never buy another Epson! YMMV.