Vandersteen 3 w/ARC d240 MKII

I'm pretty good with Vandersteen's. Unfortunately, there's more than one thing that can cause your problem. Hold off on buying cables. I don't think they're to blame. Try 2 things first. Make sure you have the speakers positioned, and the back tilt set like it tells you in the owners manual. After that, closely examine your speaker cables. Its possible that you made a mistake when hooking them up. Make absolutely sure all of the cables are where they're supposed to be on the binding posts. For example, maybe you put the + on the -, or the - on the +. If you did that, and the speakers are wired out of phase, it can sound exactly like your description. Its a very common mistake.

The D240 should have enough power unless you play very loud or have a large room. Having said that I don't think a lack of power would cause the system to sound dull, if I understand what you mean by dull. I take dull to mean lacking high frequencies. I would try another amp if available to see if that makes a difference. Given the speaker cables were damaged it's possible there was speaker and/or amplifier damage. A couple of other things to check in addition to checking the speaker tilt as recommended by Zd542; first check the Mid and High frequency adjustments on the back of the speaker, they could be misadjusted. A few turns back and forth might also help to clean any corrosion on the wiper. Second, make sure all of the connections are clean, corrosion can cause dull sound. I will add that I had 3A Signatures and upgraded to 5's and was somewhat suprised by the increased high frequencies of the 5's.

Thx guys.
The speakers are set up "pretty" good now, but ill work on the tilt and toe a little more.
The room is large at 16x16.
The speakers are old, so good call on the terminal cleaning!
I have ran a couple Stereophile test CDs and all drivers are working, responding well and everything is in phase.
A little background on the damaged Midnight 3s.
2 of the wires going to a spade were severed clean off so Ive since disconnected both cables and packaged them up to be sent back for factory repairs.
Pmottz, funny you mention loudness.
The Vandersteens only seem to come alive if the volume is high, and that is why I was curious about the amp.
I auditioned the amp in a very similar system, and that system sounded very detailed and imaged very well.
I guess the problem Im having is, when I listen to music, a piano doesnt sound like a piano any more, it sounds like a recording of a piano and vocals are just not real any longer.
I have heard the ARC amp and similar my Vandersteens sound very well separately, but not together, so its reassuring to know we think the amp has enough power.
Ive never felt great about the Audioquest Type 4s and I have a feeling they are choking the sound.

"The speakers are set up "pretty" good now, but ill work on the tilt and toe a little more.
The room is large at 16x16."

I don't know if you have the owners manual, but you need to follow the formula Vandersteen gives you to set the back tilt. Also, since your room is fairly small, and is close to being a cube, you're going to have to try different placements, and will probably end up being different than where your SL-2's were. Vandersteens don't need to be too far apart, like most other speakers do. Start off by putting them 6 feet apart, from inside edge to inside edge. One thing that you will have to watch closely is how far away your listening chair is from the rear wall. When you use the formula, your listening chair has to be a certain distance from the speakers, in order for the speakers to work properly. You don't want your head up against the rear wall, and that may require you to move the speakers closer to the front wall. You'll have to experiment some, but always make sure your listening chair is at the distance the formula gives you. Leave that as a fixed variable.

Looking at your cable situation, its much more important that you biwire the speakers with 2 completely separate runs of cable. No internal biwire. The good thing is that you don't need to use really expensive cables. It might be a good idea to go to Best Buy and pick up a spool of Audioquest bulk cable and cut 2 pairs at whatever length you need. For the time being, it should work fine.

Overall, I think your overall strategy will have to be getting the speakers placed properly. Your SL-2's are much easier to place in a smaller room, so expect to put a little time in experimenting. Also keep in mind, the Vandersteen's are much more revealing than the Martin Logan's. Especially in the high frequencies. Do all of your setup work with the contour’s set flat. When you feel like you've done the best job you can setting the speakers up, then make some small adjustment if you really need to.

You might want to turn the back contour controls from far right to far left a few times. They might just be dirty and be in a "null" point. Also make sure they aren't turned all the way down.