Best monoblock tubes amp with Vandersteen 5As

You can get away with a less powerful of a tube amplifier since they use a high pass filter between the amp/preamp. Because of this, the amplifier is almmost entirely freed of supplying power for bass. A few years back I got along just fine with a 100 watt ARC vt100 mark II amplifier. No shortage of power whatsoever.

I've heard that John Rutan at Audio Connection runs the 5's with the Ayre V-1 or the Rogue Zeus. www.audioconnect.com He's been a Vandersteen dealer since the beginning of time and knows them very well. He's helped me with my Vandersteens quite a few times. I've heard Quicksilver V4's are also a great match.

Disclaimer: I am a Rogue dealer.

John Ruttan also used the huge and expensive Cary monoblocks with them (can't remember the model, but it was the $40K ones with the huge transmitter tube) to good effect in the past.

Rogue Zeus is the ultimate, but Rogue 120 monoblocks will drive 5As well and easily. They have powerful tubes.

I don't know about "best", but I have heard them with the ARC Ref 2, and VTM200s and they sound incredible. As stated above, these speakers are relatively easy to drive. I am using a VT 100 MKIII, and it does an excellent job. However, if you listen to complex music at high SPLs, the VTMs are more immediate and intense.

Actually I heard the Vandy 5s with the Quicksilver Triode monoblocks (two big Russian tubes) and they sounded better than with the big Cary tube amps. The sound was more open and less forward. I asked the designer of the Quicksilver amps which he thought sounded better the V4 or the Russian tube amp and he liked the Russian Triode better although stated the Vandys play louder with the V4...Any comments???