Mendelssohn violin concerto op.64 with Heifetz. Simply,a work of art !

As far as I can tell S'phile has not yet reviewed any cables from DH Labs. I've had a fair amount of exposure to mid priced IC's ($150-$600) from Tara, XLO, Kimber, AZ, Analysis Plus, MIT, Shunyata, as well as some DIY and internet only brands and I keep coming back to DH labs cables as my reference. The best way I can describe them is "honest" and I think they represent great value. I think your readers would appreciate reading about them. I think it would also provide a needed counerbalance to the recent Tara labs review.

I'm a tube guy. I run a tubed CD player (Musical Fidelity A5) or tubed phono stage (BAT VK-P5) through a tubed pre-amp (BAT VK-3i) into an 80-wpc power amp (Sonic Frontiers SFS-80). I'm driving Thiel 2.2 speakers which really need and can handle a lot more power but I'm not complaining about the sound. If I step up to a more powerful solid state amp (perhaps a BAT VK-220 at 125 wpc) but keep the rest of the tubed chain intact will I lose the tubed sound that I love? Or more generally, how much of that tubed sound is a function of the power amp?

I'm am unclear how to match a power amp to a particular speaker to get the most power without endangering the speaker. I know it's much better to use a high powered amp than an under powered amp, but how do you know when you have exceeded safe reserves? Say your speaker is rated at 250 watts RMS power handling, they could take much more peaks, so would you be safe with say 450 watts to make sure you don't clip the peaks? Is there a formula to figure this all out?