Is there any truth to this question?

DIg,

Oh, so you actually have run the Vandy's off the larger Krell in the past!

So what is your take on your question based on your recollection of how that sounded compared to what you have now?

Whether any particular setup floats your boat or not is all that really matters.

Harbeth would sound much different than VAndersteen in general I would expect. We all need some change in our lives sometimes.

In a big room sitting farther away from the speakers it works with a higher powered amp. In my current situation sitting near field with a solid wall 3 feet behind me it would just overload the space and clipping distortion would be the least of my problems. Richard Vandersteen set the power range on these speakers from 40-160 watts so I've had both extremes and for my situation the lower powered amp is doing just fine. People say YBA is a little light in the bass but any more would just cause other problems.

Makes sense.

And Harbeth makes total sense given the amp and setup - sweet indeed.

All this talk about power, when there is so much more to great sound. Power/headroom is nice for the .001% of the time that the music hits a demanding peak. If one has to make sacrifices in other areas of performance for such ability, is it really worth it?

I think a lot of people vastly overestimate the amount of power they really need because power is the one dimension of performance that can easily be measured and understood.

I like the sound of all of the Vandersteen speakers I've heard. At each price point, they represent great value--well rounded performance, no glaring problems or weaknesses, and a nice musical presentation. For my personal taste and priorities, if there is one area where I would most like an improvement in this line of speakers, it would be in terms of immediacy and "jump" (liveliness and microdynamics--the kind of thing high efficiency speakers tend to be better at delivering). I don't think this is something that is delivered by more power (I want to hear this at lower volumes than at high volume), and the more lively a system sounds, the more one tends to listen at a lower average volume. I have not heard Vandersteens with OTLs, but, I would certainly given them a try because nothing perks up the sound of dynamically polite speakers like OTLs. Atmasphere stated that the Vandersteens were easy to drive so I would expect that his OTL models would be a potential match.