I would recommend QTR and Epson combo, in the earlier post pschwart mentioned epson 1400 with 3rd party inks. That is a very solid solution.
I am using claria inks, default for epson 1400, but I have a different printer. I have no pizza wheels problems, and I can print negatives for salt/albumen and they are high key images, and I am not using any bichromate to increase contrast. I guess negatives for salt/albumen are the densest you can get.
I believe epson 1400 even with default inks, is a good solution, but you will see in the forums that claria inks are weak in terms of UV blocking, and yes they are weak.
Only if you are using QTR you can make dense and good negatives. Don't even bother with default epson drivers, I have tried RPN, chartthrob and many other printer tweaks
you can't get consistency.
And I have no knowledge of the workings of carbon process. I am only remarking QTR and Epson combination is quite remarkable even for UV weak dyes like claria.