diff --git a/dascore/io/core.py b/dascore/io/core.py
index 30e9468b..1e67030d 100644
--- a/dascore/io/core.py
+++ b/dascore/io/core.py
@@ -196,6 +196,7 @@ def yield_fiberio(
         format: str | None = None,
         version: str | None = None,
         extension: str | None = None,
+        formatter_hint: FiberIO | None = None,
     ) -> Self:
         """
         Yields fiber IO object based on input priorities.
@@ -216,13 +217,20 @@ def yield_fiberio(
         Parameters
         ----------
         format
-            The format string indicating the format name
+            The format string indicating the format name.
         version
             The version string of the format
         extension
             The extension of the file.
+        formatter_hint
+            If not None, a suspected formatter to use first. This is an
+            optimization for file archives which tend to have many files of
+            the same format.
+
         """
         # TODO replace this with concise pattern matching once 3.9 is dropped
+        if formatter_hint is not None:
+            yield formatter_hint
         if version and not format:
             msg = "Providing only a version is not sufficient to determine format"
             raise UnknownFiberFormatError(msg)
@@ -623,6 +631,7 @@ def scan(
     >>> attr_list = dc.scan(file_path)
     """
     out = []
+    formatter = None
     for patch_source in _iterate_scan_inputs(path):
         # just pull attrs from patch
         if isinstance(patch_source, dc.Patch):
@@ -636,6 +645,7 @@ def scan(
                         man,
                         file_format=file_format,
                         file_version=file_version,
+                        formatter_hint=formatter,
                     )
                 except UnknownFiberFormatError:  # skip bad entities
                     continue
@@ -656,6 +666,7 @@ def get_format(
     path: str | Path | IOResourceManager,
     file_format: str | None = None,
     file_version: str | None = None,
+    formatter_hint: FiberIO | None = None,
     **kwargs,
 ) -> tuple[str, str]:
     """
@@ -669,6 +680,9 @@ def get_format(
         The known file format.
     file_version
         The known file version.
+    formatter_hint
+        A suspected formatter to try first. This is primarily an optimization
+        for reading file archives where the formats usually are the same.
 
     Returns
     -------
@@ -695,7 +709,10 @@ def get_format(
         suffix = Path(path).suffix
         ext = suffix[1:] if suffix else None
         iterator = FiberIO.manager.yield_fiberio(
-            file_format, file_version, extension=ext
+            file_format,
+            file_version,
+            extension=ext,
+            formatter_hint=formatter_hint,
         )
         for formatter in iterator:
             # we need to wrap this in try except to make it robust to what
diff --git a/dascore/io/plugin.py b/dascore/io/plugin.py
deleted file mode 100644
index d2e13b8e..00000000
--- a/dascore/io/plugin.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-"""A module for handling dascore' plugins."""
-from __future__ import annotations