Need help with Spica TC-50 / Kinergetics setup

I may be a little tight in my current room configuration. The speakers are only about 18" from the back wall and one is that far from a side wall.

I remember in my old apartment where they were more in the open and being blown away with the sound stage. When I closed my eyes, it sounded like the singer was up on stage in front of me. Wild! I don't get that much in my current configuration (although we are hoping to expand the room in the next few months and I wonder if the sound will change).

What $500 speakers do you suggest I look at?

I wish I could just add a little more "umph!" to the Spicas for movie watching. I still question if the kinergetics are just not performing optimally either due to restricted power or placement or something...
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I'm afraid that I can't help with the kinergetics. It could be the room ... some rooms just suck out the bass. It could be that your amplifier is running out of power (passive subs must really suck current from a power amp).

I do know that a REL strata will complement the tc-50s very well, and may well give you what you're looking for overall. Musicality with a bit of grunt. However it will probably set you back a bit. Mine cost $800 used. No it's not for sale ! :-)

Something of a compromise between the spica imaging and having a bit more bass might be a used pair of Epos es-14s, though these are rear ported and will have to be a couple of feet from the rear walls. They're nice speakers and are about $500 or less used. Other possibilities are Mission 753s. If you really want bass then I liked B&W DM603s ... real rockers, but not for classical.

I think you have an old, but, realy nice little music system there. In that regard I would suggest a better amp for the Spicas. Neither the Spicas or the Kinergetics was really designed for home theatre. The Kinergetics was intended to augment speakers like the Spicas (which are not know for their bombastic dynamics, quite the opposite) with a bit more bottom and touch more punch for the typical small music system of its day. Heck DVD's weren't even around when this stuff was introduced. I'm sure I'm not alone, when I say that I'd hate to talk you out of keeping this stuff. It would be very hard to get a comparable music system for it's present day value. If you have your heart set on home theatre (I can offer a multitude of reasons why I would suggest reconsidering, but, that not my place) perhaps some other gear might serve you better. You might want to have a tech look at the Kinergetics.

Thanks for the input. Seems the consensus is that, although a good speaker set for music, the Spica / Kinergetics just aren't for home theater. And that maybe my Kinergetics have a power supply problem on top of everything else.

Can anyone suggest a good tech in the SF Area? (maybe I should repost a thread in "tech talk")

I noticed that you posted that one speaker is the same distance from the back wall as it is from the side wall. Am I correct to assume that your speakers are not set up from the center of a wall, and the speakers have different distances from rear and/or side walls. As your set up is in a square room, having the same distance from side to rear is compounding that problem. If each speaker has a different distance from the rear wall you might have slight inequity in bass response. If each speaker, has a different distance to side walls you may have image shift or even a spectral discrepency where one side may seem brighter than the other. Perhaps you can describe the positioning of your system and your listening position. May I humbly suggest playing with an unorthodox set up, where your listening position and system is set up diagonaly across the room, where your speakers would both have the same distance from the slanting rear wall and the same (but different from the previous distance) from the slanting side walls. This would allow your video monito to be placed further back from the plane of you speakers (good) and might facilitate another Spica TC50's proper equidistant set back for a center channel (good). There may be some other advantges that due to the fact I'm only guessing at, I'll keep to myself. Play with this before purchasing that center channel. This may make things sound better. Of course it may make things sound worse.