What about power for Vandersteen 2 speakers?


I have three amps I can use, 50w YBA, 100w Krell and 200 wpc Rotel. I listen to jazz in a small room and as long as I don't get silly with the volume the smallest amp sounds the best. I know Vandersteen rates the speaker between 40-160w but it works fine with the 50w YBA amp. Is it better to use more power or should I stick with the better sounding YBA?
128x128digepix
Actually it's 50 wpc so I'm within the Vandersteen guidelines. I would love to sell my YBA and Krell and buy a YBA 2 HCDT amp. They rate it at 70 wpcbut it's high current and sounds better than my YBA 3 on the Vandersteens.
If you have the means or can borrow a Tube amp to test with, you may be pleasantly surprised with what you are going to hear. I ran 2CEs with both SS and Tubes and always felt that tube amps gave them the midrange and stage that made them seem like much larger speakers. Sure, unless you get a larger tube amp the bass may fall off a bit but the midrange quality makes up for it in pleasure of listening. I compensated for the bass db loss by placing them just a bit closer to the front wall. Or, you can add an economical sub and cross it over around 40hz to give your system full body without being boomy.

Hope this helps... Vandi 2s are keepers. :)
You just need to play and see what you like. My favorite amp with out breaking the buget was the quicksilver v4 for that speaker. I used that amp wit hthe 3 the 3 an the 5a. it was the one piece of equipnemtn I was satified with. I did originally have rca and did upgrade to balanced, I recomend the balance.