Comments, please, on Spica TC-60 setup.

I'm new to the forum and have a decidedly beer-budget approach to music reproduction, but would appreciate any comments or advice on setting up a pair of TC-60s I bought recently on eBay. I hear they're tricky, and would like to think they're capable of better than what I'm hearing.

The system: Harman/Kardon HK3500 50wpc receiver & FL8550 5-disc CD changer and Mission 772 speakers being replaced with Spica TC-60s. Monster interconnects and XP speaker wire (2 10' pairs for biwiring). Also, Stax Lambda Pros with SRD-X energizer.

The issue: The Spica's are much more reticent than the Missions on dynamics and vocals, and the imaging, while good and deeper than the Missions, is not dramatically better.

The setup: very lively 12x18 room with 9' ceiling. Speakers 4' from front wall, 2' from side walls, 8' apart on 26" metal stands. Listening position 4' from back wall, 10' from speakers. As it's an apartment, listening levels are natural only on quiet vocal material.

This arrangement seems to yield the best soundstage, but it's not what you'd call holographic. It's a little more tightly defined than the Missions' and deeper. Bass is also much more articulate. But, the upper midrange reticence (around 1-2KHz) is just killing vocals and any sense of immediacy. Norah Jones and Abbey Lincoln are just too far away and hiding behind a thin curtain. The Missions are perhaps too up-front, killing soundstage depth, but intimate vocals are right there and very close to the Staxes in tonal balance. With the Spicas, only on livelier material like Paul Simon's Rythm of the Saints cranked up to near-natural levels (enough to bother the neighbors downstairs) do the dynamics start to open up and generate a sense of space despite the laid-back reproduction of the vocals. These speakers seem to need to be fairly loud. At low levels, the dynamics just aren't there.

Now, obviously, better source and amplification gear would help. Better stands would help. Better cables might help. But, in terms of dynamics and presence, the Missions manage much better with this modest kit, albeit with a more forward and much shallower soundstage. I'm not aiming for the ultimate in resolution here. I just want a believable soundstage and presence. I have to believe the TC-60s can sound better, and I'm hoping it's a question of positioning.

My 20-year-old memories of the TC-50, and the reviews of the TC-50 and Angelus I've read, led me to expect a somewhat thin, tipped-up sound from the TC-60, which would suit me fine if the imaging lived up to Spica's reputation. But, this is exactly the opposite of what I'm hearing. It's not that voices are chesty, but more that their upper octaves are rolled off.

Any help or comments, especially from TC-60 owners, would be greatly appreciated.