Digital BW, The Print

What process do you use to decide how to adjust your images and/or 
printer settings for a new paper?  I've been using MIS EZ inks in a C84 
with great results for the past year, but have only used EEM.  Now I've 
picked up some sample packs from Moab and Innova, and am wondering how 
to make the best use of just a couple of sheets of a particular paper, 
in order to make a reasonable decision on whether to order more of it or 
not.  (All of the papers are much more expensive than EEM, so I don't 
really want to just order a box of each to play with.)

Do you just print a small image and see how it looks, then make some 
adjustments to the print driver (which on the C84 offers brightness, 
contrast and saturation sliders as well as C, M and Y, although I should 
think only the first three would be useful for the EZ inks) or do you 
fiddle with the image itself?  Given my druthers, I think I'd rather be 
able to print the same image on different papers just using different 
printer settings, but don't know if that is really feasible given these 
inks and this printer.

Or is there an orderly way to use a step wedge for this sort of 
analysis?  And if adjustments seem to be necessary, do you adjust the 
printer or the image?

Thanks for any advice and experience.

Cheers,
Kip