Thanks for the input everyone! Michelle, my Color Navigator window is pretty close to what you've got.
And, the prints aren't really THAT far off, but I'm damn picky... and yeah I know that the print relies on reflected light while the other (monitor) is luminous. I mean it's much better than the disappointment I used to get from Chrome to Print.... just pursuit of perfection and all that crap, yada yada. I did try the canned profiles for my paper, and my calibrated profiles are much, much better.
At least with chromes you could always tell the print house, "Hey my film looks great, get your sh*t to match it!"
I do need to think more about my print viewing conditions, but then what do you standardize to? I've never seen a GTI print viewer in an Architect's office... so do I just go to all their conference rooms with a light meter and build a simulated crappy viewing environment? LoL....
On the bright side... i just dropped off a huge job with a client yesterday. While we were talking about the shots, we reviewed them on their 40" LCD TV in a small conference room. looking at the Web Gallery I had posted for them online... and you know what? The images looked pretty damn good... a little warm, but really pretty close. It's sort of like when I spend 4 hours retouching an image, feel like I've finally got it JUST RIGHT and then turn off the retouch layers to see that it's not really all that different.
I'm just never going to be satisfied... which of course is part of why clients hire me.
Good Mornin'
CB