Vandersteen 3A sigs, whats wrong here.

The Vandersteens are not a lean sounding speaker, actually they err on the warm side. The Kimber 8TC is a good match for the Vandersteens, perhaps they are a touch lean but that's not a bad thing for the Vandersteens. Positioning is important, use the guidelines in the owners manual. I see from your System photos you had your previous speakers close to the wall, while that might emphasize bass that is not the best location for Vandersteens. Ideally they will be at least 2 feet from the rear wall, more is better. Setting up the tilt of the speaker is detailed in the manual, but has no effect on bass. The tilt gets the upper frequencies just right for your listening distance and ear height. I would suggest checking all of your conncetions to make sure you don't have the woofers out of phase with each other, i.e., the connection of one speaker is the reverse of the other. That will kill the bass. Having done all that I would play bass heavy music and walk around the room listening to the bass level. You may find your room has a lot of bass nodes where cancellation or reinforcement are taking place. Speaker and listening seat placement may have to be adjusted to make sure you are not sitting at one of those nodes. Good luck!

Second Pmotz' generous reply. Even a seasoned user can get phase reversed accidentally :o( and much more important, positioning and room characteristics have a huge effect on bass.

One approach is to use monophonic source material with a lot of bass content. Turn the balance control all the way to one side. Place that speaker vis-à-vis the rear wall for best bass output. Then center the balance and place the other speaker for imaging. Yes mono for imaging: the sound should be centered.

The process takes a while; apologies if I'm telling you what you already know.

reposition the speakers closer to the walls.

Are there really speaker cables out there that are so bad that they could possibly cause a speaker -- one that is well known to have excellent bass -- to sound like it has "not much bass at all"? That's a sad state of affairs, if true.

I vote for a phase issue. With 10 connectors, it would be easy to accidentally swap a pair.

certainly the out of phase issue should be looked at.

Daverz,

I just mentioned the wire because I do think 8TC is a bit lean and if a few other factors like setup and one other lean component (if applicable) could sway the sound to be thin and lightweight.

I have found system matching to be critical and balance can sometimes be difficult.

my two cents...