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

Basement is finished - drywalled ceiling and walls, carpet.  Anchors are filled.  I agree with the "veiled" comment - mids and highs sometimes feel like they have a film on them... Low volume is not real pleasant, full, or thick.  Higher volumes (when my wife starts texting from upstairs) can be enjoyable with the right stuff.  Thanks for the input so far!

You need to be more specific about what you’re not liking about the sound and what recordings aren’t sounding good to you, otherwise you’re just spinning everyone’s wheels here. 

I have a similar problem with the list of music that you presented. A lot of music sounds great and a lot of music is so so. It’s a bummer but I don’t know how much more you can do to fix it. Do you believe in tone controls? You could join rune and Use the equalizer’s and different filters that they offer. That’s pretty much what I do, when there’s something that sounds like crap  I go in and adjust it and listen to the album. I have different settings for different albums so that when I want to listen to some thing I just push the button and it automatically changes the settings. I think that’s the easiest and least expensive way to go do you feel like you’re

Some recordings are just bad no matter which system they are played on 

That is the way they are supposed to sound- they are Vandersteens!
Also they are ridiculous power hogs- 86dB! Why does anyone buy these things? What do you expect?? Sorry, but it doesn’t have to be this way. There’s much better choices around that price, ones that are so easy to drive you can go to a by far superior sounding lower power tube amp and have a system that sounds great at low to moderate volume yet still plays plenty loud when you want to rock out.

One of the few speakers I ever had to listen to in my room, an earlier version of the 2. To hear what other say, sounds like not much has changed. Do yourself a favor. Get some Double Impacts. That is the low hanging fruit. Then you will probably be able to sell your pre-amp and amp for almost enough to get a good tube integrated like a Raven Nighthawk. Which is more than enough power once you’ve ditched the Vandy’s.  

Oh and by the way everything will sound great with Double Impacts. I have Moabs and am constantly amazed how much I enjoy full orchestra, jazz, etc., but at the same time how much better rock sounds too. Every recording sounds different sure, that better be the case or you blew it somewhere. But with the right choices everything sounds better, and this is how you get there.