Lavardin with Avalon Classic or Sonus Faber Amati

Have a look at Living Voice speakers (Avatar/OBX) as well.

William,
I can't comment on the Lavardin amps or their marriage to/with the Avalon's or the Amati's, but I own the Amati's and can vouch for the impedence curve being difficult at times. Please don't misunderstand, the Amati's (to me) have supreme ease about them, but power matching is an issue. The Amati's are lovely in every way however, you may want to speak with a number of people about their power choices. The guys at The Analogue Room in San Jose,CA are really knowledgeable. I'd suggest a call to them if the SF speakers are a real options for you.

Best of luck, hope this helped.

William, I have owned the Amati's for about two years. I have found that the measurements on paper of these speakers can be misleading when it comes to reality.Although the Amati's are 92db efficient don't let that fool you. They love a tube in the signal path, but more so from the preamp. The amp is another issue. I tried the Cary V-12i mono's without success. The Aamti's need power. I finally settled on the Pass Labs X-600's, however an X-350 would certainly do the trick. I would shy away from really dry and analytical sounding ss amps, as the midrange from these speakers are truly to die for and a dry amp would not let the true sound of these beauties emerge. I hope this helps.

Darrin