Digital BW, The Print

"Calibrated monitor/Dark prints", ha, sounds like a new reality show from
the Fox network.  Anyway, I have recently purchased and printed quite a few
prints with the Epson R2400, both color and B&W.  Also I just calibrated my
monitors for the second time trying to figure out why my prints are so much
darker then they are on screen.  I have two Dell LCD's and used the 6500k
setting to calibrate by.  But still, the prints on my monitor have all this
shadow detail that just gets lost in the final print.  I have tried applying
a curve to brighten the image just before I print but then I get ugly
results with certain shots.  I am using the proper profiles and such also.
So my question is; does anyone have any suggestions I could explore to try
and resolve this issue.  I am going to try and do the step wedge and see
what I get also.  It just seems silly that I have to drastically brighten
images just before going to print in order to get accurate prints.  Thanks
to all for any help you might be able to give.

Jim