Tube amp with Vienna Acoustics Beethovens?

I'm not sure what aspect of your sound you are expecting to improve with a tube amp. Tube amps do sound different from each other tonally speaking, so I would assume you are looking for liquidity and bloom, not more warmth. Personally I would be looking at some of the push pull 80wt (+/-) amps using. Look at getting one from a well known manufacturer so if you are not happy it will be easiy to resell and not loose a lot. Think CJ, ARC, VTL, etc. The CJ ll is a nice place to start. Easy to operate and easy to resell, and sounds quite nice and has adequate power. I see them selling for well under $2000.

The BAT vk60 is a great amp, and can be found for less than 2k. I don't know what your power requirements are but I had one running Martin Logans with lower sensitivity than your va's and was quite happy.

Thanks for your input Newbee and Mthieme.

I was thinking about amps in that power range but I started to have second thoughts when I read the recommendation chart on the VTL web site. They suggest that with speakers with two 6" woofers to use the MB 185. I was thinking more along the line of their ST 85. Would a <100 watt amp have the damping factor needed to control a speaker with five drivers? The Beethovens have 2 7" woofers, 2 mids and 1 dome tweeter. They present a 4 ohm load but have 91 dB sensitivity.

FWIW I have some 4ohm speakers which I have driven with 4 different tube amps, a 35wt integrated, a 60wt triode, an 80wt pentode and a 160wt pentode. The speakers have 2 woofers, 2 midranges, and a tweeter. They are ported. They have an efficiency spec of 92db. The larger amps drive these speakers with ease at volume levels that can overload the room at 4 or 8 ohms. The smaller amp has the same capacity, volume wise, but for some reason do not sound as smooth in the mids/highs off the 4 ohm tap, which you would think the speakers should be connected, although the bass is just fine. Off the 8 ohm tap they are much smoother but the bass is just a tad soft, a little of the impact gone, but very little.

The point of all this is that some extra power can go a long way, that is the larger amps can drive the speakers better throughout the frequency range even though none of them is really max'ed out power wise. The 4 ohm speakers sound fine on the larger amps on the 8 ohm taps - as with the smaller amp the highs seem smoother. I suspect that the larger ones just have better transformers and can drive the woofers better even at a higher impedence.

Hope this helps some in your decision. FWIW 100 watts of tube power is a lot of power!

I also drove Legacy Focus 2020 with the bat with great results. They have 7 drivers if memory serves me. 3 12',2 6", 1" tweeter and a ribbon tweeter. They are very efficient(95 i believe) and are 8 ohm, and I have heard them rock with 15 watt Cary monos. But getting back to your problem, I think that you will be better served trying to hear your speakers with a similar power amp at your dealer than taking the blanket recommendation of the vtl website. 91db is pretty efficient so don't count out lower specs.