I owned the SL700's for a few years and found that they do take some power to get the best bass response possible - which can be very good. As you probably know, they are a sealed box with low sens (84dB sens). The trick I found was not to use them in a large room, where the power demands increase with the need to raise the sound pressure. The absolutely best setup I had was in a room 12x11 feet. In this case the VTL Compact100 monos (about 100 watts) drove them extremely well, producing prodigious bass and scary-amazing imaging. Because they are very revealing, you will need a high-quality amp preferrably of a high-current design. The Muse solidstate amps might be a good choice, but I found the SL700 works extremely well with quality tube amps as well--just try it in a smaller room. By the way, they love XLO cable. Good luck.