A stereo setup is the correct playback. Correct placement of the speakesrs is about 4 ft apart, 3ft from you,ear high, in a sound deadened room about 12ft X 8ft.in dimension, with the speakers centered on the long wall.
I used to have the NS-30X speakers. They were basically super-oversized monitors. Do you have the tweeters at ear level when sitting in your listening position?
"i just feel like i should be getting much more out of these speakers"
What do you feel you should be getting out of these speakers that isn't there now?
More bass? More volume? More "more"?
Contrary to Nuck's post the speakers should be further apart than 4' and much further than 3' from you.
With a pair of NS100's you first need to make sure the speakers are operating correctly. Components can age and some may not be working in a speaker of this vintage.
Also make certain you have the speakers wired in phase. If you don't understand what "in phase" means, place "speaker phase" in a search engine. It amounts to red to red and black to black but reading about the process won't hurt you.
If this is a surround type receiver, placing the speakers on "front" will not do the job. You'll need to go into the set up menu of the reciever and initiate the correct checks to funnel all of the five channel sound through the front speakers. Even if you are listening to a stereo program such as CD or FM, you'll need to make certain the receiver directs the signal to only the front channels. If you don't know how to do this, read your owner's manual. If it is too confusing, go back to the shop where you bought the receiver and ask for help. If the receiver expects to have a center channel connected or is operating in Dolby Pro Logic mode and there is no center speaker, you'll always have bad sound until you make the correct settings.
Different listeners expect different results from their systems. Most of us who have been at this game for a few decades expect smooth, tuneful bass response rather than one note boom. We prefer a more holistic approach to speaker set up than I've seen from many of the younger listeners.
There are mulitple set up regimes on the web. If you haven't tried any of these and just plunked your speakers down where they fit, then you probably are not getting the best performance from the system.
Try placing "loudspeaker set up" in a search engine and doing some reading. These programs will guide you toward a better understanding of how the speakers and the room interact. If you want more bass, use a subwoofer set up to establish where the strongest bass response occurs - or just shove the speakers into the corners on the floor.
Speaker set up is a set of trade offs. You have to know what you want and then you'll find a set up program that suits those desires. Until you tell us what you want and what settings you have on your receiver, there's not much more we can do to help you out.
Don't confuse any ol' Yamaha speaker with a Yamaha studio monitor. There was a NS5 that was voiced very much like a Small Advent and which sold at the same time as the NS1000 (and the Small Advent).
Yamaha took their cues from JBL who with the 4311 professional monitor and the L100 consumer version fed off the idea of "monitors" as the Holy Grail of loudspeakers.
There was a consumer version and also a studio version of the NS1000(M) that sounded nothing like the NS5 at the lower end of the price charts. Then there were the various speakers in between that sounded like nothing that would be considered music. But Yamaha did not allow dealers to cherry pick a line and some lesser speakers were sold that in no way could be considered as even related to studio products.
Early NS1000's did not sound exactly like later NS1000's as the product evolved over the years. This is quite unlike a product such as the BBC's LS series of monitors which were designed so every speaker was a drop in replacement for any other version of the similar model number. Today, even after 30+ years of production, to be licensed as a "real" LS3/5a a new 3/5a is meant to be a drop in for any other 3/5a ever produced.
Are you familiar with the NS-30X Jan? I bought a pair when I was teenager for (what was at the the time) an exorbitant amount of money. Just sold them a couple of years ago.