Not Thrilled with Vandersteen 2CE Sigs - where is the first place to work on?


Trying to build up the system this year, bought some Vandy 2CE Sigs.  Have the anchors, following instructions for placement, built bass traps and a couple of acoustic panels in my medium-sized but odd-shaped basement listening area - still not thrilled.  Using laptop with Tidal and Dragonfly Red - and some stuff sounds GREAT (Steely Dan, SRV, Beck, Dire Straits, Wilco) - but disappointed in a lot of other stuff.  Some objective opinions on where my issues might lie?  Expectations too high? Hearing the truth of production variations?  Running an NAD C272 at 150WPC and an original 1979 APT Holman Pre Amp.  Not MAC, Bryston, etc - but was expecting more.  Thoughts? Rebuild/recap the APT?  Amp upgrade?  Where might the low-hanging fruit be?
gjinwi
I suspect that the Vandersteen, being hard to drive, have low impedance dips that your amp may not like.   Also a moderate priced DAC and streamer would help.  For budget purposes, you could spend about $1000 on a streamer and DAC.  And find a Class AB amp that is big enough to run these speakers.  A brand new 2-3K amp with about 200 watts should do this.  Make sure the power goes up as impedance goes down.  Benchmark, Parasound come to mind.  This is probably a cheaper route than replacing the speakers.  I would give the Vandersteens a chance.  I don't think they have sold so many of them because they sound bad. 
Teh Vandersteen’s are actually very easy to drive. I’ve driven them with lower and higher power amps and all have sounded incredible. I’ve never heard anyone say they sounded like crap.

Most of the time it’s poor recordings. Way too often we are hearing poorly recorded music or possibly damaged speakers or amps. It can happen with any good gear.
As much as Mr. Rutan would like to believe otherwise, not everyone is a Vandersteen fan boi.
Do not mistake advancement of an audio system, with its thin sliced improvements in sound quality, for resolution of displeasure of the character of speakers. This applies to any brand and model of speakers.

Confusion on that point can be costly.   :)

Although the perceived musical problems were not originally stated, I believe we have got down to it with lack of resolution, etc, excessive warmth. Woolly as a descriptor seems fair in the overall scheme of speaker sound, imo. I don't think they'll work for you in the long haul.

I don't think you'll significantly change the sound with electronics, although some may be a but suspect. I've always thought 2ce to be too warm, but have totally enjoyed other higher-end Vandersteens.  I own a now unused McCormack DNA-1  (and had an 0.5 and a prior 1.0 as well) as it is too warm to use with my present audio only speakers. I can barely imagine that amp driving 2ce's (I could cut out the beer) but to each his own 'sound'. They are long-term listenable in a way.

I'd vote ditch them and find a better/more modern design. You don't have to move to ruthlessly revealing either to get detail and better resolution than you have. There are plenty of superb reasonable choices out there.