A Good Match?

Thanks Stanwal... I'm learning a lot here. So what you describe generally is a factual problem... but we're not sure if it applies with the Hales. Does anyone else know what the impedance minimum on the Hale's might be? An internet search on that is not revealing much to me.

Frogman: what do you think of pairing the Hales with the above mentioned Cambridge or Music Hall

Consider a used NAD 270 or 272. Affordable and good power w/some meat on the bones.

someone here is selling a couple of new Yaqin el34 based amps, that would put out some meat! and colors and texture....for 400 bucks!
40 tube watts go along way too.

Music hall a15.3

You have mentioned that you are on a budget, but I don't believe you've mentioned any numbers. Have you browsed the used section here? A modest sum goes so much further in the used market. Here in San Diego, someone is selling a classic Adcom combo, the GFA 545 and GTP 350, for well below the price of that Yamaha. I'll bet something like that would work quite well. Keep an eye out, and you'll see that attractive budget deals come up frequently.

These were part of a surround package, yes? I have a similar situation, where my mains are bookshelves from a decent surround system, though the Hales are certainly more highly regarded. Same size drivers, 85 db sensitivity. There are many discussions in the forums where knowledgeable members have reported that small bookshelves really need a lot of power to sing. I found that that was the case for me (until I began active biamping, but that's another story). Still, it's difficult to pull a wpc figure out of thin air. NAD, Adcom, Hafler, etc. Plenty of high power quality pieces that go for pennies.

Perhaps I need to be a corrected, but it's my impression that speakers designed for surround applications are not likely to have wide ohm swings, as so many surround receivers would have trouble with this.