Need some audiogon expertise

FWIW if you system has an upper midrange emphasis it might lead you to believe you have reduced bass or midbass (a general lack of warmth). A couple of your components are not (IMHO) tilted toward warmth and are neutral at best, but should not cause a lack of bass. I agree with previous comments that you should investigate proper room placement of the speakers and the listening position, using a RS meter and a good test CD. If you have not already do so you should check out the various theories for room placement, such as Cardas. Rives has a nice web site. Both are good for some begining understanding and as starting points.

Kool 39, You just said something that got my attention - that is, that you have to turn the volume up to make your speakers come alive! I don't know what you were running before you got the VMPS, but one of the common issues with dynamic speakers is the need to crank up the volume on some models. I replaced my Quad 63's with 3 way dynamics which use Dynaudio drivers and that was the first thing I noticed - how much louder I had to play them to get them to sound full - and thankfully how much better they sounded loud, as opposed to the Quads. That may be part of your problem ....just different performance from different types of speakers. Also, for what its worth, I have a room 2 feet shorted than yours and my speakers are pulled out from the back wall 5 feet, they are 2 feet from the side walls, they are toed in to cross in front of me to help reduce sidewall reflections caused by close placement to the side wall, and the listening position is 4 1/2 from the back wall. Soundstaging is excellent and I'm flat to a slight rise at 32hz with a fall of starting at 28hz. A lot of patience, the RS meter, and a good test disc helped a lot to dial in the speaker location as well as the listener location. My speaker location coincided with the one recommended by Rives site (I found his site after I did all the hard work). Good luck......