In article ,
Sander deWaal wrote:

MiNE 109 said:

Vandersteen recommends 40-160 watts for the 2Ce. Jolida makes integrated
amps with 40, 50, 60, 70 and 100 watts. You might not want to use the 25
watt integrated or the 8 watt SET integrated, but it looks like Jolida
has five models that should work.

Please don't forget that a simple notation of "100 watts" in 8 ohms
isn't enough to ensure that this amp can drive any load.
The current capability is important as well.

Yes, that's a good point.

If that 100 watt amp hasn't got the capability to double the power in
half the load, it sure won't be able to drive a real world
loudspeaker, which isn't a constant "8 or 4 ohms" over the frequency
range..
Therefor, it's better to look at the voltage an amp can put out in
various loads.
If that voltage is relatively constant, and this means a power supply
that is well-regulated and capable of delivering enough current, then
at least one requirement is met.

Jolida doesn't specify voltage, except in the distortion spec (20 V).

My 25 W/8 ohms hybrid MOSFET amp plays louder than most 100 watt
commercial designs, due to an enormous supply reserve of 500 VA.
It doubles up power in 4 and 2 ohms, and to a lesser degree in 1 ohm.
My 20 W/8 ohms triode amp plays only slightly less loud than the
MOSFET model under normal listening conditions, despite the fact that
it is a tube amp. It will however lose the competition with the MOSFET
amp when playing (too) loud.
Again, a very good supply design and output transformer make this
possible. See the figures in a previous post by me.
IMHO, it's possible for a good tube amp to have sufficient current
reserve to drive most speaker loads.
A well-designed solid state amp will always be better in this regard,
though.

Of course, this is just only one (but important) requirement for an
amplifier to sound good on a given speaker.

The Original Poster seemed to be asking for a good $3k system (stereo
with cd). Vandersteens are designed to be kind to solid state
amplifiers, so that's where I'd start, although I imagine a good tube
amp would serve. (No one commented on my $3k recommendation: Quad
63s/used and a cheap integrated amp.)

Stephen