2 Channel system sounds weak and lackluster

You are in need of some room treatments as others have noted.

Lots of advice here, but none of the basics. 

Are the speakers in phase? That will 100% give you what you are describing. 

Is everything setup correctly? Do you have any EQ or tone set wrong? Any muting going on? 

Besides finding the best spot of the speakers, would suggest unplugging everything, setting it all back up, going over every setting, then use some test tones.

I changed 2 cables going to my sub, for weeks my system sounded dull, hollow. Thought my equipment was going out. Actually picked up another amp, plugged it all in, and it sounded wonderful!!! Went back to my old amp, it now sounded better over the "new" one. Found one a speaker cable was backwards. It has been out of phase. Was both happy to figure it out, but sad, I purchased a new amp to figure it out. 

My pre-amp has 3 stage muting. One day, again, after adding a new TT cable, the volume needed to be up all the way. Nothing fixed it. Didn't sound bad, just no volume. Turns out, I pressed one of the muting buttons, also thought my equipment was going out.

Point, is, we panic, when something is not right, in our panic, do something dumb. Sometimes the most obvious problem is the problem.

Ok so update, I swapped out the amp for the one I used with the Wharfedales at my last apartment. It sounded pretty much the same for both speakers. I repositioned my listening room along the long wall and it made a drastic difference, even threw some blankets on the floor to see if that helped at all and it seemed to make a notable improvement. As much as I would love to buy a new amp, finances are pretty tight right now so I can only do so much.

My plan for the moment is go to Costco and buy the small sound deadening panels they had because its cheap and gives me a chance to see how it helps and then get an area rug and throw that down. Thanks to everyone for their advice and input, once I try a few things in the following week I’ll report back. Hopefully it truly is just poor room treatment because that’s a lot easier to get spouse approval for vs new equipment 

@oldaudiophile 

You are correct about the front ports and bottom port, positioned right they are incredibly capable speakers especially for their price point (or the pre-covid discount that I got mine at).

The room is rectangular but with a bump in the wall for a closet (previous owners used it as a bedroom and I will be making it a rectangular room when I can get around to renovating). One window (covered with a blanket currrently) on one long wall, the other long wall is where the door to the room is. The window was to my left when listening on the short wall, behind the speakers when on the long wall. Flooring is vinyl pressed wood planks over top of a concrete foundation (basement room). Drywall ceiling and walls, unsure of quantity or quality of insulation (I would assume a fair amount because Alaska). Inside the room is my small leather loveseat and two 8 cube record shelves, one laying down and one upright, behind the couch and beside the couch.

I’ll give it a go with room treatment as you suggested, from what I can tell already it seems to be the right direction

@mswale I went over all of the connections, double and triple checked that they're all going to the correct terminal. Even swapping out to the other amp gave the same results, the only notable change was moving around in the room. I have the option on the Audio Research amp to change the phase and on the DAC I'm using, but no tweaking provided the full change I want until moving the rig around.