Ok so let's talk theory.

If you use one input to make one output, you can get an output on 13.  Repeat 6 times at 2r and that makes a 23.  The route to do so has 8 consecutive actions on silver, with no regrabs, which is yucky.  Quint also comes out late because you have to regrab the last cardinal.

Now, if you use one input to make quint, but borrow quicksilver from a second input, you can get an output on 12.  That would be a 22 with 7th input stealing.

Oh but you can do worse - you can borrow one cardinal from a second input as well, speeding up your quint and theoretically getting an output on 11.  Now you run into blocked output with 7th input stealing, but there is technically time to use a quicksilver from the 7th input to speed up the 5th output to resolve that problem too.  Theory min of 21 is absolutely insane.

In my experience, making either a first output 11 or a full rate 23 is just too hard.

I tried to get the output on 12, but decided I needed to focus on making a mirrorable quintessence generator with the lowest latency, at least the lowest latency possible using a single input.  I made that, and it continued into a pretty nice 24.  After a lot of fiddling, I got the secondary down under 240k.

Input stealing was not very convenient with that layout, but I attempted it anyway.  A 23 beats all 24s.  I only aimed to steal a single quicksilver, and use it to shorten the bonding on the 6th output from 4 steps to 3 steps.  Even that was finnicky, requiring me to redesign the lower half of the machine twice.

If you gave me a year I could probably make a 22.  Anyone who makes one in the week is a wizard.

Also 3 cheers for that track river.