Von Schweikert VR-1; What Amps are People Using?

Can I use the VR-1s as mains and the center and get something smaller/cheaper for the surrounds? Obviously it would not be VS, as they have nothing of the sort. What do you think? Would it mess up the HT and I should just splurge on the 4 VR-1s?

I would say get VR-2s for the front, and eliminate the need for a subwoofer, a LCR15 Center, and VR-1s or LCR15s for the back. You should be pretty happy with this setup.

I use two VR-1's for surrounds and three LCR-15's for the front trio in my HT setup. All are powered by IRD-MB-100 (le Amp) monoblocks.
I ran the VR-1's as L,R fronts for awhile while I was selling off my Paradigm Ref 40's and I personally felt the VR-1's were all over the 40's in every regard.
The MB-100's ? OK, but I am in the amp upgrade mode and have been looking for replacement amps.
But the VSA lineup as it is ..... is truly impressive with the IRD amps. Far from ideal, but the VS VR-1's (and LCR-15's for that matter) are just a solid performer for the $tag.

Are we still talking stereo in here?
I've paired them with a Primare 30.1 amplifier, seems to fit your high current amp's description pretty well. Speaker control is excellent and there is a certain tube like warmth to this amplifier.

As far as bass, the VR-1's at 30 cm (~ 1 feet) from the wall have a very strong bass performance till ~50 hz without any sacrifice to overall speed (both 2D (the speakers can't be pinpointed with eyes closed) and 3D (meters of podium depth) soundstage is expentional). Might be the stands help a bit here (Super dreadnaughts). My room is 4x8 meter. I had to lower the cross-over of the matching VRS-1 sub to 50 hz to avoid any mid-bass booming!

When I had my VR-1s, I wound up running them with a Coda CSi-B integrated. They responded well to the ~330W of the amp, though I suspect it was probably major overkill. I ultimately added a pair of VR-S/1 subs, and that filled in the low end quite nicely in my above-average sized room.