System edited: Based on the very helpful responses I swapped my speakers (and their cables) and am very pleased with the result. I am happy now, but may look at the electronics in the future.
From what I remember, those are an excellent speaker, and it sounds like you've made a very wise choice. IMO, they are among the "intelligent choices", meaning high end, but still great value as well. Enjoy!
This will sound a bit off-the-wall, but I am serious. If you have never had your ears cleared of wax...go to an ENT MD and have it done. It takes about 10 minutes. DO NOT do it yourself....repeat.....DO NOT. I have it done once a year, and it is amazing how much high-freq I regain every time.
Thank you to everyone for the extremely helpful recommendations. I ditched the cables and replaced with 10 AWG Belkin cables that I terminated using Canare locking bananas. At the same time I changed to PSB Stratus Gold speakers. The sound is a lot more of what I am looking for. They are more articulate with a bigger soundstage. Happily I did away with the wooden blocks as well. I had put the Vandersteens up to raise the tweeters. My next upgrade will either be to the cd player or to the amp.
I am not familiar with your electronics, but you certainly could improve upon your speaker cable and interconnect to get more clarity. Also, I am very familiar with the Vandersteens, which are wonderful speakers, with lots of presence. However, you MUST get them off those wooden blocks. It's hard to tell if you are using the Sound Anchor stands from your picture, but those should also be considered indispensible. Heavy stands, spiked directly to the floor will give you a tremendous improvement. The height of the speaker relative to your listening position is very important. The blocks not only defeat the sturdiness of the stands, but they also raise the speaker too high off the floor.
My guess that the CD player and speakers are the most responsible for the lack of clarity, but improving the CD player will probably be less expensive and more likely to be a change for the positive than changing the speakers.
The reason I say this is that speakers are such a matter of personal taste that, if you're happy in all other respects, changing to a completely different speaker is quite a risk. You might gain clarity but lose other aspects that you like.
I own a Marantz CD67SE and a CD5000 and both err on the warm/fuzzy side of neutral, largely due to high jitter on the DAC clock.
You could switch the CD player for an Arcam, or perhaps the Cyrus CD player here on Agon, or you could add a reclocking DAC such as the Benchmark DAC1 to sharpen up the source end of things.
If you wish to change speakers I think you could do much worse than a pair of Green Mountain Audio Europas. Like the Vandys these are 1st order coherent designs, so they excel in imaging and a broad soundstage, but they are extremely clear speakers .... occasionally ruthlessly so. They remind me somewhat of studio monitoring with Acoustic Energy AE1s .... they are very neutral.
FWIW, The Intuitive Design Summit Loudspeakers have astonishing detail but do not sound harsh at all, especially when the Dodson 217 Mark II D DAC is in the chain. They are fairly efficient, something like 89, 90, or 91 dB, but definitely perform better on the low end when driven by a powerhouse amplifier. With a smaller amp, the low end wasn't nearly as impressive, but the high end detail was relatively less affected. With respect to soundstage depth, these have it in SPADES. These are speakers which sound very good to excellent with decent equipment, but sound phenomenal when the front end components are sufficiently high end (in the perfomance sense rather than just the expensive sense).
Have you tried moving the tv away from your stereo? Those things (thin and flimsy plastic encased tv sets) can be responsible for some nasty resonances (as well as some HORRIFIC tonal coloration) throughout most of audio spectrum and particularly with the lower vocal register. My humble advice, move the tv out of the room entirely -try it for a week, let us know! Ps. When, or if, you move the television set (completely out of the room!) also move the equipment rack to one side of the space -so it doesn't "fuzzy up" the center (inbetween the speakers) of the soundstage. And another thing I would recommend (in your particular situation) is to take some potted plants (or small trees) and place 'em behind (and slightly off center) towards the outside of each Vandy. Doing this should improve midrange warmth and not affect soundstage "intelligibility." Psps. If you'd really like to keep your equipment "in your soundstage" go with a MUCH SHORTER (and wider) rack -keeping the cdp on top (i.e. easier on the back. You have remotes, right?)
I would try some Kimber PBJ interconnects and 8PR speaker cable. Both are exceedingly cheap but have a great midrange bite lacking in most other cables. You can do the upgrade for around $150.
I own a Roksan Caspian MKII Int amp with Triangle Zerius Speakers with much success. I like the lively detailed sound and its very clear especially when I added a YBA CD Special into the mix. Also try changing cables to something like Analysis Plus, www.pothaudio.com has great cable which I use or maybe some cardas......With Vandersteens and marantz you are getting to smooth of a sound.
>but I am looking for something with a more clinical sound.<
Be careful what you wish for. Hopefully this was just a bad choice of a description. Because clinical to my ears = analytical, which is usually NOT a good thing. Resolution and transparency is fine, but go too far in that direction and you have a system that is highly unlistenable for any length of time. Anyway, good luck in your search.
I appreciate all the advice. I know there are a number of compromises in the system, but I suspect that particularly for the sound I seek the speakers are the biggest problem. They sound sweet and warm but I am looking for something with a more clinical sound.
I agree with Karl. The speakers are part of your problem but the CD player may be as well. Changing CD players is much easier so I would try that first. Arcam is a good idea, Cary too.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your speakers gotta go. Those Vandys are never going to give you much clarity no matter what you put in front of them.
My guess is that if you would change your cd-player, your disc player is an underperformer in your system, you will gain a lot of clarity. Buy something with a fresh, crisp sound, like an Arcam cd 23T for instance.
I agree with Timrhu on the headphones.
Your speakers me be a little to relaxed for your taste, but buy a good player first!
Very nice set up. I'm a big fan of Roksan equipment. A couple of points that may be relevent. I owned a pair of Vandersteen 2CE Signatures and a pair of Meadowlark Sheawater Hot Rods simultaneously while deciding which to keep. I preferred the Shearwaters sound; more lively while the Vandys seemed overly soft, maybe polite is a better word. Also, the Vandys were just to imposing physicaly. At the time I was evaluating these speakers I was using a Roksan Kandy III integrated with various cd players. My next point addresses your question better. I am in the process of moving and have my system in boxes. Now I'm listening to a pair of HD-600s. Love these headphones. I am hearing so much more detail with these headphones compared to the system with speakers it's amazing. Last night I was listening to Annie Lennox and noticed instruments that I never heard before. I'm not sure how much of this sound can be heard in a conventional listening position through speakers though. Now there are some negatives such as reduced spatial clues and less bass. I suppose it's a trade off. If more detail and spatial information is what you're looking for, I'd say look into speaker upgrade. Good luck.
Perhaps I am being unrealistic, but my point of comparison is my Sennheiser 595's playing through my Headroom Airhead. With the headphones there is a crispness and detail that my hifi doesn't come close to. I don't expect to have a headphone sound, but I would like to get increased depth. With respect to my system, I think that each component has substantial compromise built in. The preamp is famous for clarity but at the expense of low end. The power amp is flaky in the high end. Most significantly the speakers are have a full sound but with a notable hole in the midrange. I think that my next step will be to change the speakers and exchange the 13 guage speaker cable to 10 guage. After that I think it would be good to get a bit more power - the Roksan delivers 70 wpc @ 8 ohms.
Clarity can be a tough one! I have gained the most clarity by either improving the power supply with outlets, wires (between the box and the outlet) and seperate circuits, or by reading my Bible. Which clarity did you mean!?! : )
