Vandersteen 3 w/ARC d240 MKII

I'm pretty good with Vandersteen's. Unfortunately, there's more than one thing that can cause your problem. Hold off on buying cables. I don't think they're to blame. Try 2 things first. Make sure you have the speakers positioned, and the back tilt set like it tells you in the owners manual. After that, closely examine your speaker cables. Its possible that you made a mistake when hooking them up. Make absolutely sure all of the cables are where they're supposed to be on the binding posts. For example, maybe you put the + on the -, or the - on the +. If you did that, and the speakers are wired out of phase, it can sound exactly like your description. Its a very common mistake.

The D240 should have enough power unless you play very loud or have a large room. Having said that I don't think a lack of power would cause the system to sound dull, if I understand what you mean by dull. I take dull to mean lacking high frequencies. I would try another amp if available to see if that makes a difference. Given the speaker cables were damaged it's possible there was speaker and/or amplifier damage. A couple of other things to check in addition to checking the speaker tilt as recommended by Zd542; first check the Mid and High frequency adjustments on the back of the speaker, they could be misadjusted. A few turns back and forth might also help to clean any corrosion on the wiper. Second, make sure all of the connections are clean, corrosion can cause dull sound. I will add that I had 3A Signatures and upgraded to 5's and was somewhat suprised by the increased high frequencies of the 5's.

Thx guys.
The speakers are set up "pretty" good now, but ill work on the tilt and toe a little more.
The room is large at 16x16.
The speakers are old, so good call on the terminal cleaning!
I have ran a couple Stereophile test CDs and all drivers are working, responding well and everything is in phase.
A little background on the damaged Midnight 3s.
2 of the wires going to a spade were severed clean off so Ive since disconnected both cables and packaged them up to be sent back for factory repairs.
Pmottz, funny you mention loudness.
The Vandersteens only seem to come alive if the volume is high, and that is why I was curious about the amp.
I auditioned the amp in a very similar system, and that system sounded very detailed and imaged very well.
I guess the problem Im having is, when I listen to music, a piano doesnt sound like a piano any more, it sounds like a recording of a piano and vocals are just not real any longer.
I have heard the ARC amp and similar my Vandersteens sound very well separately, but not together, so its reassuring to know we think the amp has enough power.
Ive never felt great about the Audioquest Type 4s and I have a feeling they are choking the sound.