I have heard the 805S' driven with a mcintosh 6900 integrated, Rotel separates, and a 100w Yamaha reciever (yes, I said it, "receiver"). The 805 got about as loud as you would want to go on a bookshelf (about 90 db peaks on Von Karajan's Eroica from 1963 on DG (CD), driven by the reciever, and I heard no distortion. Out of the bunch, the mcintosh sounded the best, but my second choice would not be the Rotels. Bryston makes a nice 100 watt integrated also, which you may be able to find for around 1200 not new but I only heard it driving Dali's and Dynaudio consumers and have a sneaky suscpicion that it may be a little harsh for the B&W's, particularly with classical music. For my ears ( and other than an occasional nostalgic listen to the Stones or Janis I listen to classical 99.5 hours out of 100) the 805 sounded very nice without a sub, to get down low you will need a sub anyway. Only relatively few works will leave you somewhat lacking - heavy bass such as Mahler's 9th for example - you can get to ok levels say 90 db peaks with the 805 and to do so won't actually take more than 50 watts in a normal room of say 8 ft. ceilings and 12 by 20 positioned about 6 feet away. As far as musical, the 805S is really hard to beat - for anything other than concert levels for big bass heavy works, I do not think I heard any speaker sound better than the 805S - and that includes the 802D, Focal's beryllium tweeter floorstander listed at around 10k, Dali's Helicon 4 Mk II, and the magnepan 3.6.