Is there any truth to this question?

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.

"but, I would certainly given them a try because nothing perks up the sound of dynamically polite speakers like OTLs."

Do they ever!