My 2Ce are at least 4ft from the front wall. Approx 6 ft apart and about 2ft+ from side walls. These seems to give me the most transparent sound with solid low end. Any closer to the front wall and the low end gets to be too much of a good thing!
Power wise I would not think you enjoy the full benefits of a 2 Ce till you get to about 100W. I have been through this grindmill already, first with a 60W SS amp, then to a 80W Rowland stereo amp and now to a 245W Rowland bridged monoblock. The progression is tremendous - with sufficient power/current (whatever it is!) the sound just opens up: the soundstage extends left and right, the air and transparency, depth and low end is just night and day improvement. The sound is sweeter and complicated passages are not compressed or screechy. The speakers just love high end upstream, and you don't get your money's worth out of the 2Ce till you hear it with a good setup. IMHO 45 watt is not what you could live with once you hear what this spks do when they are cut loose on a good powerful pre/power amp combo. Don't believe otherwise, you'd just be fooling yourself.
Power wise I would not think you enjoy the full benefits of a 2 Ce till you get to about 100W. I have been through this grindmill already, first with a 60W SS amp, then to a 80W Rowland stereo amp and now to a 245W Rowland bridged monoblock. The progression is tremendous - with sufficient power/current (whatever it is!) the sound just opens up: the soundstage extends left and right, the air and transparency, depth and low end is just night and day improvement. The sound is sweeter and complicated passages are not compressed or screechy. The speakers just love high end upstream, and you don't get your money's worth out of the 2Ce till you hear it with a good setup. IMHO 45 watt is not what you could live with once you hear what this spks do when they are cut loose on a good powerful pre/power amp combo. Don't believe otherwise, you'd just be fooling yourself.