Best photo inkjet printers for professional-grade prints?

Hi there.

I’m starting this thread because I have a very specific request, and I wasn't sure if it had been covered yet.
Basically, I am looking for an inkjet printer that delivers absolute top-tier photo quality, regardless of any other features (though I do have some constraints listed below).
I already own a color laser printer, which handles all my color document needs perfectly fine. I also have a scanner—including a duplex one for both documents and film—so I don't need that. I even have a small Canon Selphy for quick prints, so dye-sublimation printers are off the table.

What I actually want is the most straightforward printer possible. I don't care about office bells and whistles like scanning, Wi-Fi connectivity, or any of those complex office software suites. I just want ultimate photo print quality.
I know there are now printers out there with 10 colors (like the Epson SureColor series), but the prices are astronomical. Plus, around here, they are mostly sold by small independent shops that tack on insane markups. I have zero interest in helping someone else pad their margins during these tough economic times by dropping $24000 on a single printer.

So, which inkjet printer offers the best photo output at a reasonable price point that I can actually find easily here in the States? An EcoTank model would be a nice bonus.

You’d probably have better luck asking this over at the Photography Forum.
I’ve been running a Canon PIXMA and everything was smooth sailing until the print head gave up the ghost—of course I didn't bother signing up for that extended warranty. Once you're set, though, the ink lasts forever. I use Kodak paper; honestly, it’s just as good as the brand-name stuff but way easier on the wallet.
As for those SureColor models, from what I can tell, they're mostly plotters and wide-format printers—no wonder they cost an arm and a leg.

Terry Collins9 said:You’d probably have better luck posting this over on the Photography subreddit.

The problem is, nobody there actually knows anything about photography, let alone the technical side of printing.

Nice one, this!

Terry Collins9 said:Nice one!

I’m not going to dwell on that right now; I honestly couldn't care less about them. I spent nearly a decade dealing with people like that, so thanks, but I'll pass. What I actually need right now is a solid inkjet printer—something capable of smooth gradients and deep color saturation on glossy paper. We just bought a house, and I'm finally getting my own office set up. My plan is to print my own photos and frame them for the walls. The alternative is sending them out for professional printing (using a digital Frontier Airlines service and actual photo paper), but the issue there is that I lose control over the final result. I can process an image perfectly and hand it over in Sundance Film Festival quality using TIFF files, but I have personally WITNESSED time and again that when you walk in with a TIFF and a specific color profile, they look at you like you just dropped in from Z and Reticula. And let's be clear: I am absolutely not printing from an Adobe file.