Digital BW, The Print

Hello-

I know that this is a group of experts and new "upstarts" are 
probably a pain, but I'm glad to find what appears to be exactly 
what I'm looking for.   I have a home darkroom and have labored over 
my good 'ol chemicals for years.  I have also crossed into the 
digital realm but been unable to reproduce what I can do in darkroom 
when it comes to my preferred medium - black and white.  I have an 
oodle of equipment but find myself still getting my hands wet in the 
darkroom to get the prints that I really want.

If you aren't already bored with my ramblings, I'd like some advice 
based on your experience, and based on some of my existing equipment.

I have a Nikon F100 and am very comfortable with Tri-X 400.  I have 
years of B&W negatives from my beloved old Leica M6 that I no longer 
own.  I process my own film at home and have scanned some into my 
computer using a Nikon Coolscan IV ED film scanner.  Then use PS 
Elements to tweek the images to my liking (or at least the best they 
look on my standard Dell CRT monitor).  But this is where it ends.

I have an Epson 785 EPX photo printer, but the black only results 
are not good.  I usually just use basic black only settings and 
Epson premium photo paper, glossy.  The prints are dark gray and 
muddy and I can see print lines, even at 28800 resolution printing.

I also take multitudes of digital images with a Nikon D100, but I'm 
not as happy with these images when converted to greyscale.  I 
really prefer the look and tonality of my Tri-X negs.

You guys appear to have pioneered into where I need to go from 
here.  Any advice as to which steps I should take next? 

I can buy an Epson 1280 if it would do me some good. I don't mind 
keeping my darkroom for film processing reasons, but would love to 
use the benefits of Photoshop form tweaking my images instead of 
printing in the darkroom.  I just need an output that will give the 
good "black blacks" that I love about my darkroom fiber prints.

Thanks for any advice you can share from you experience.

Keith W. Cooper
Little Rock, AR