sorry for the spam, but have i got the amp-n-pre for you! :>) seriously, this stuff will smoke the b&k, or comparable gear. i have an alchemist kraken amp& kraken preamp currently f/s on audiogon, asking $445 each. these units are about a year old, in excellent shape, and retail for $1080 each. they drove my brother-in-law's proac 2.5's to more than sufficient loudness, but he got the upgrade bug and bought $7k worth of arc gear. i got the krakens from him for a second system, but it looks like it now won't happen, cuz of a change in my plans. i have foto's if interested - this gear is way-cool looking, as well as having excellent sound... they are class a amps, which mean they put out lotsa current, and the power increases a lot, if the speakers' load in ohms drops. also note the separate power supply for each unit...
here's more info from the alchemist www:
http://www.alchemist.uk.com/frame_kraken_top_tsdi.htm
regards, doug
ps - apologies to all, i tried to contact melish directly, but he's not an audiogon member...