Accuphase and B&W 800 series

@rfprice 

I can only offer a parallel experience. I tried to power my KEF Reference 1 Meta stand mounts with a Luxman Class A 590 AX II. The little KEFs require a tremendous amount of power to sound good. It was a complete disaster for me! There was no bass or body to the music, and the midrange was terrible. I consulted with a local dealer who sells Luxman, who stated that this is a terrible pairing. I sold the Luxman and went with a pair of McIntosh MC 611 monoblocks. This is an end-game system for me. 

I owned a pair of B&W 802 D3s, which require powerful amplification to make them sing. I am not sure how much of a difficult load the 804s present; however, if they are close to the KEFs, they will eat up the lower-powered Class A designs. 

Power is your friend when trying to play music with wide dynamics. No real advantage to Class A over Class A/B. Now both are challenged by the arrival of latest generation Class D amps!

@jeffreyw 

This has been my thinking exactly. 

@jasonbourne71 

The Class D amps have been getting my attention lately. I hope to hear some soon.