John (Jmcgrogan2), as you probably realize but others may not, it’s not a matter of horsepower (i.e., watts). It’s a matter of the effects of amplifier output impedance on tonality, resulting from the interaction of that output impedance with the variations of the speaker’s impedance over the frequency range.
BTW, there are of course quite a few speakers having relatively flat impedance curves, as well as relatively high sensitivity, that I would expect to be great matches for this amp. Including the Daedalus speakers I use, and I believe also models from Coincident, Tannoy, and others. But I have no specific suggestions to offer that I feel confident would provide the sonic character the OP is looking for (I am mostly a classical music listener, not a rock concert-goer), and that would also meet his price point.
Best regards,
-- Al
BTW, there are of course quite a few speakers having relatively flat impedance curves, as well as relatively high sensitivity, that I would expect to be great matches for this amp. Including the Daedalus speakers I use, and I believe also models from Coincident, Tannoy, and others. But I have no specific suggestions to offer that I feel confident would provide the sonic character the OP is looking for (I am mostly a classical music listener, not a rock concert-goer), and that would also meet his price point.
Best regards,
-- Al