Power amp recommendations for 1000 and under

When I owned Vandersteen 2CE's I drove them with Quicksilver Silver 90 mono's. I have heard these amps drive Vandersteen 3's and they will work well. I don't know if you can get them used for $1000. I sold mine for $1100 easily. Subsequently, I needed to go to a stereo tube amp and I bought an AMC CVT2100as from retrodaze audio for around $700 and it is very close to the Quicksilver in sound quality. It does have 10 wpc less than the Quicksilver (80 vs 90) but that may not make much difference. I don't think you can use the 60 watt Quicksilvers with the Vandersteen 3's as they need some power to work effectively.

Three ideas

Rogue Audio 88
Bryston 3bST (I can't believe no one has mentioned this amp yet)
Blue Circle BC22 (Used for around 900 and a bargain)
If you can stretch a bit wai around for Plinius 8200P

-Vik

Odyssey Stratos is raved by many.

In response to some of the questions presented in the wonderful replies:

As of now, I have no intention of getting into analog. This may be attributed to the fact that I was born in the late 70's and have never purchased a record. From what I have heard, the sound has some "differences" but I may not be sophisticated enough yet to appreciate them. Neither have I had the privelege of listening to a record without the annoying "pops" and "cracks" (fathers record collection is quite old). I also do not know how widely available records are for some of todays bands that I listen to.

I listen to mostly rock/alternative. Enjoy classical as well.

You might want to try a Sunfire 300 watter, a Bryston 3BST, or an Adcom 5802, all in balanced mode. Quicksilver is good too but I found it makes everything sound the same.