System for a teenager

I may have to do exactly as you suggest. Robert and his father had hoped for remote control. A player with volume was the only economical way I could think of to achieve that goal without exceeding budget.

Albert, I agree with looking for an integrated amp. How much power does the Vandersteen's need? The Audio Refinement Complete is a nice little 50 watt integrated amp. It is made by YBA. It has a remote control which also controls the selection of the component inputs, as well as volume.

Other low cost integrated amps with remotes are Cambridge Audio and Creek. They both also have optional internal phono stages that can be added for like $50.

You may also be able to get Gilbert Yeung of Blue Circle to add to his CS Integrated Amp, the optional remote volume control he offers with his BC21.1 preamp.

I second (third) the integrated idea. Assuming tubes will NOT trigger adolescent curiosity to "check out how these work"... (think of the heat & the voltages), Croft makes a reasonably priced integrated (Chameleon? $~1300 new) with MM phono I think -- but no remote, unfortunately.
Admittedly, it's difficult to surpass the price/quality of Sugar's Audio Refinement. Another ss integrated that has prodigious driving power (for its size & price tag, of course) is the Symphonic Line (#9# I think). Maybe Odyssey could propose a used one. That should easily drive the Vandersteens & it sounds good too.

Albert, what is the budget they gave you to work with? Sounds like the speakers are a "given" and you want to add amp and front end. Would the young man be interested in a budget analog rig too?

Albert: If you're not wed to tubes, here's an idea. Get a used Classe CRCD, which is an integrated preamp/amp, plus a tuner, plus a CD player - all with a single remote control - packed into a single high-quality unit. The amp puts out a solid 40 watts/channel. I believe Classe stopped producing this model since it became too way too expensive relative to their price target.