Canton Reference 9.2 with Arcam A85 underpowered?

your cantons are relatively inefficient at 87db, but your arcam should be more than adequate to drive 'em--arcam's power ratings tend to be understated. i've used my 65w/ch alpha 9 to run even large, power hungry floorstanders and never experienced clipping even at high voumes. i wouldn't worry about the nominal power rating assigned to the speaker, which tends to be a meaningless spec; the real criteria should be how it sounds with the amp. enjoy your purchase.

Thank you for your help. I kinda figured the Arcam would be okay since, as you say, they are very conservative with their ratings. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't damaging the speakers.

Thanks!

I have had several Canton's in my home (I still have a full Vento system and had the Ref 3.2's for a while as well) Canton makes an amazing speaker, but they will do better with more power. I for one wouldn't be cranking them up with an 85 Watt Arcam amp. I have run my 809's and 802's on 200 Watt Mark Levinson amps, Krell Evo's (400 Watts//channel) and have tried them on less powerful amps as well and can say the improvement in bass response from the higher powered amps is significant.

I would think you'd be OK as long as you aren't trying to crank out high volumes (something Canton's don't do very well anyway) but you will definitely reap a major benefit from switching to higher powered amplification.