These are some good recomendations but the best thing you can do to make your amp choice simple(this may seem off subject, but wait)is to buy a Vandersteen sub(the amp is in the woofer!) for your 3's(if you want a second opinion go to www.audioperfectionist.com and read Issue#2) then any good ARC,Conrad Johnson, or VTL combo providing the amp has an input impedence of 100k(most of the amps I list do) you don't need as big an amp. 50 watts might suprise the hell out of you(remember the woofer has it's own 300 watt amp and bass is what sucks the juice!). I am running this sort of set up with 2Ce's which are 1db less efficent than 3's with a 50 watt ARC amp and an ARC pre and the sound is OUTSTANDING(and plays quite loud I might add). you can easly get this in your 3K budget too!the subs go for under a grand used, and you have a wonderful number of good amp and pre combos you could buy for 2K. HUmm I'm an ARC guy but I saw a CJ Premier 3 for sale a few days ago for under a grand, put that together with a CJ MV55 or similar? You will not be able to beat it for the cash!
