Help amp for Vandersteen 3A sig w/ Anthem pre 2L

Bob, I would never poke fun at you. I feel I am the big winner so far in our short history. My shop sounds better than most folks' living rooms! I don't think an amp cares about phase angle, but I do. That is why I have Vandersteen speakers, they are BOTH time and phase correct. Richard has yelled at me too, but I'm still hoping you will give us a translation after talking to him about bi-amping his speakers with multi-channel amps. He told me NOT to do it, then explained why, and it was way over my head, electronicly speaking. Curious minds want to know!

I have been told by dealers that an Aragon 8008BB will work very well on the 3As'. This is the amp I currently have, though it is driving a pair of Mirage M3si speakers. I am not wealthy and at the time, the Aragon was the only amp I could audition that was good enough to live with. Not at the top of my list, but I could afford it. Later, Krell came out with the KAV 250A, but it was discontinued before I was in a position to take a serious look at it (I have a Krell KRC-3 preamp).

More recently, I was auditioning a pair of Vandersteen 3A Signatures. I really liked them, but in the shop they were just lacking some punch. At firt, they were using a Krell Showcase processor and amp (multi-channel). They swapped out the pre to a Conrad Johnson Premier 18LS, and the amp to a McCormack DNA-225. The front end was an Ayre CX-7 (what I use at home). Cabling was MIT PCs and Straight Wire ICs and SCs. The sound improved I thought, but still lacking in punch and dynamics. The midbass and bass were also less prominent than what I am used to at home or what other systems at that shop do (same music).

For comparison, they hooked up a pair of Aerial Acoutics (Model 7?) to the same system, but the midbass was quite unacceptable. At the time, I decided that the overall frequency balance of the Vandies was probably more correct than many speakers, but the lack of punch and dynamics in the shop was too large a negative. The dealer said that the McCormacks tend to have a lighter sound and that my Aragon would probably be a better match. However, they did not offer to let me try the demo pair at home (to see if the dynamics were better on my system and room), so I did not purchase them.

I'm using the Channel Islands D200's on my 3A Sigs and prefer it to the McCormacks I had for years. While the D200's are a bit above your budget, the D100's are within it. Less power but comparable sound. IMHO, it's a great match.

I am using tube preamp ARC LS 16 mkll and AMP-Bel Canto EVO2 gen2 with MIT BIWIRE (shotgun series) and your speakers for really fantastic sound.CD is ARC CD3.