Hi Carla -
I've been through a series of 4 or 5 printers over the last 5 years, both Epsons and HPs, and I'm convinced that just about any photo printer nowadays will produce at least a respectable print. Yes, you'll see an improvement when you go to something like an Epson 2200, Canon i9900 or a HP DesignJet 30, but you will still have to send it the correct settings. As Can mentioned, calibration is key - at least do the Adobe Gamma thing if just for contrast. How old is your monitor? If it's more than 3 years old it' s probably not worth even calibrating.
The Dell 1905FP monitor is getting very good ratings - Dell is a front-runner in FP monitors, along with Apple - and I'm interested in it since it's a positionable LCD that will rotate to portrait. There is also LaCie, who make a reference graphic arts monitor. Their LCDs are very expensive, but you can find terrific deals on their CRT monitors.
I've been able to get excellent color on a number of $100-150 printers, without true color management. It means standardizing your paper, paying very close attention to photoshop settings, having a consistent workflow, and more. I do plan to invest in a hardware-based CM system at some point, mainly to cut proofing paper costs, but the serious ones are all over $1K.
ken
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