which of these four amps for Wharfedale Elysian 4's?

@audiocanada You have a very good speaker, a bonafide giant killer.

You may never know how much a seller beat up on the used amp or how soon it could fall apart on you (cause a nagging headache).

A pair of Schiit Tyr (Class A’ish topology) giant killer monoblocks "NEW" would run you $3200 with a 5 year warranty + 15 day satisfaction guarantee/full refund return period.

8 Ohms: 200W RMS , 4 Ohms: 350W RMS

I am assuming that your used amp "deals" are priced more than NEW SchiitTyr giant killers.

Good luck with the amp purchase.

(facepalm) No such thing happened..... Ayre’s cunning daddy downrated his 8 ohm wattage spec to make it look like it doubled in power at 4 ohms. The audiophile propagandized by doubling miracles got fooled.

I have not heard the Ayre, but based on reputation and its ability to double ts wattage into 4 ohms, that would be my choice.

unfortunately importing new into Canada has all kinds fees above and beyond that msrp, those Schiit’s would run around $5400 CAD and the local used amps I mentioned are less than half that and can be re-sold easily for what I will pay

but yeah i get your point, as soon as I have some extra cash will upgrade accordingly

In that event, the Yamaha could be a ’safer’ bet. I had the predecessor A-S2100 for a bit and it is a conservatively rated tubey sounding SS without sacrificing any detail (the kind of detail that is typically lost with regular tube amps). If this 2200 is anything like it, it will play a better role in bringing out the spatial qualities of this speaker. But, the important thing is these higher end Yamaha amps are designed to be very reliable (can take a beating if the prior owner was a amp abusing neandertal) and if it did break...Yamaha techs are good at fixing their amps as good as new without charging you anything much at all (send it directly to Yamaha, not to some local tinker town clown).

The Kinki may not be a good match for this specific speaker. It could make your speaker sound a bit clinical and its spatial qualities could go away. Chifi support may be great/may not be too great (depending) if/when things break.