My speakers sound like crap with Arcam Amp?

Hey folks! Man am I ever disappointed. I had an old Rotel receiver and cd player from the early nineties that provided a surprisingly good sound but scraped them when I got a good deal on an Arcam AVR 300 Receiver which is claimed to be equally as good for audio playback. I think my speakers,Energy C-3 match mutch better with the Rotel gear even though it was older and mutch cheaper. The sound from the Arcam is way to laid back and somewhat unbalanced through the Arcam. The music has no life to it,very boring. I'm also using Audioquest Type 4, and Audioquest Diamond back interconnects for cables so how can I not be getting better sound? The Arcam is not musical at all it seams like the Rotel gear and there is at least 200 hrs on the amp now so must not be an issue of burn in time.
The only thing I can think of is Arcam and Energy Connoiseur speakers are a very bad match. The Arcam sounds fine when watching movies but for 2 channel stereo I'm very unimpressed...
Does anyone know what the best type of speakers are for bringing Arcam gear to life. It is a very smooth and precise sound but not musical with little drive through the Energies...

Regards John