The truly amazing thing about 2Cs of any vintage is that they can perform completely satisfactorily with budget electronics but can take full advantage of any improvement you make upstream. I have had Vandersteens of one sort or another in my stable for most of the past 27 years and I must agree with Exocet that they sound best to my ears with tubes. They sound great with Rogue, VTL and ARC integrateds and hallucinogenically brilliant with the heavy hitting ARC, VTL and Jadis monster amps. Of course, few will pair speakers of such modest cost with such electronics but the combos are nothing if not awesome. The 2Cs can truly take you as far as you would like to go.