Is there any truth to this question?

For your situation, listening nearfield and not at high volume, amp power is not likely the key to good sound.

If you take Minor1's advice and audition different amps to see what sounds best in your rig, don't count out some of the better Class D amps if you do look at amps with more power. Mine do quite well listening near field at lower volumes. But again, power alone is not likely the solution to your needs. Try some different amps and see what works best.

Have you thought about trying a buffered preamp to eliminate gain in the preamp stage and give you more control over the volume range? Buffers from Pass, Burson, Dodd, or Horn Shoppe could work nicely with your YBA amp and they are very reasonably priced.

The Vandersteens are an easy load for most amps (including OTLs); IMO going with a more powerful amplifier is likely not the best move- it will be more likely that the 'first watt' issues will be exacerbated.

If you play the system as loud as you can, does the amp clip? Does it get harsh? might be the better question. If no I would be wondering if its worth worrying about.

This is not to say that you can't make improvements, but maybe that a bigger amp may be a step backwards in your situation.

Can I get it to clip?, sure but I would be in the other room to get away from the noise. During normal listening session from the listening position, no not that I can hear. I've never gotten the warning lights in the Vandersteens to illuminate. If I lived in a house and could sit 7-8 feet back I probably would have 100 watts as my starting point.

Yes, but remember, back in the day, 86 db was pretty darn good speakers for standard air moving drivers. Not withstanding horns which are incredibly efficient and only require very low power to drive you out of the room. Back in the day, amps clipped routinely and most (not all) amp manufacturers openly lied about their specs. I'm not saying that you need rediculous power to drive speakers. What I am saying is that you have to make sure you match the amp/cables to the speaker you intend to use. 86 db is absolutely not efficient and based on a speaker's db/watt rating, you need more power capability out of a decent amp to drive an 86 db speaker well. Also, just to clear up something I read earlier, amps are rated by what their sensitivity (input voltage for the input signal) is to get rated output power. So, look at most amps, their sensitivities are pretty close to the same. Sort of a industrial standard. So the power rating of the amp has really nothing to do with volume. It is the signal coming into the amp and the amp's sensitivity. for example, a certain Mark Levinson amp has an input sensitivity of 1 volt for 250 watts output into 8 ohm load. Same for other amps for lower watt output. 1 volt input. But, my point here is say you have a 100 wpc class A solid state amp with a 1 volt input sensitivity. If this is a true class A amp (and I mean class A output bias at rated output), and it doubles the rated output for halfing the load. 100 watts for 8 ohms, 200 watts for 4 ohms, etc. There is no way this amp won't be able to drive your 86 db speakers well. Lesser efficient speakers require more powerful amps (better power supply capacity) to drive them. Engineering 101. Speakers with strange loads like electrostatics require solid, well designed amps that can handle the lower speaker impedances. ie. more power handling capacity. For more efficient speakers (horns, etc.) you don't need nearly as much power for the rated db output at 1 watt. So, when you buy speakers, make sure you buy an amp that absolutely is able to drive the speaker well (IN YOUR ROOM). Also, don't forget that changing amps also means that the integration of that amp to your system changes the system dynamics. in other words, that amp may not work well with your cables and your pre-amp. So, it may not be the new amp that is the problem. I evaluate one item at a time. If it is an amp. I don't change anything else. either I like it or I don't. I don't play with cables, etc.

enjoy