Amp for PSB Stratus Gold I

recently acquired some Stratus Gold i locally. paid $1000 (not sure where I got the cash to buy them tbh, it just kinda materialized after I decided I needed them)

I had heard of the speakers and already owned one PSB speaker that I use for mono checking

I got these speakers primarily for mastering as my listening requirements are not strictly audiophile (still decent though - my living room system is paradigm 9se, kitchen is camber 1.5, and garage is jbl cf150)

They are wonderful to listen to as well being accurate. They are not aggressively honest like my Neumann monitors, but they are a pleasure to work with and are truly full-range, unlike most speakers. Of course, below 30hz they can use some help for HT duties, but that is not really musical frequency (although I do have some long term plans for experimental infrabass techno nights with an adjustable "deepkick" that plays at the tempo of the audio input into it, just a click but at 5-20hz, but I doubt I'll ever see that plan to fruition). I don't see much music come through that has a ton of sub-30hz content, 30hz is usually the bottom for most music.

Here's the thing though. I don't have a proper amp. Everyone, from the guys at PSB to the old guy who sold me the speakers, says that I need a few hundred watts to run these speakers to their potential. I am shamefully using a $100 mini amp with two TPA3116 chips, with the potential to put out 100 watts per channel, but in reality, it's more like 70 watts per channel (due to the power supply I'm using). I could upgrade to a reference amp, but right now, the signal seems perfect, definitely loud enough, no heat, no fan (of course I would get a convection cooled fanless amp if I were to get anything else). 300 watts per side seems like overkill.

And, I have a further caveat. I am running my single PSB Image 6T with a 100 watt monoblock. The program power of that speaker is rated at 150 watts, but I can get serious speaker excursion & driver distortion at half power with my monoblock. A local legend of amp & speaker repair told me that home stereo equipment is notoriously overrated. I know that my amp put out what they say, unlike many home receivers that claim 100 watts x 7 or whatever. I'm worried that if I get the reference amp of my choice (which puts out 400 watts/side at 4 ohms), it would simply overdrive the speakers. I know the Stratus Gold i are in a different league than the Image 6T, but they are from the same company. I believe this 100 watt monoblock is conservatively rated though, because it pumps extremely loud. Something is a miss, in any case. I use a 500 watt amp for my JBLs, own a a decent PA that I rent out and use for parties, and I have done live sound since around 2006, so I do know what loud is and what levels should be expected, and I know that my PA speakers are rated for 250 watts continuous, and they can fill a concert hall, not with bass like the Stratus Gold i, but still, I really don't want to damage these speakers as they are truly the best I have ever heard. But I am using a sacrilegiously cheap amplifier. I want to get the best performance possible, but I also don't want to damage the speakers. I know that driving a weak amp too hard is worse than driving speakers too hard for the most part, but rest assured, I am playing very moderate signals, mostly hovering around -20db, and I have the amp at 1 o'clock for very loud listening. My "preamp" is a headphone amplifier, and a mixer channel. Slight noise when nothing is playing back and the amp is turned up but nothing terrible or totally unexpected. The reference amp I might get is a Behringer A800. They discontinued their Class AB reference amp, and tbh I have had good experience with Class D amps. I'm tempted but I think it might be overkill. My room isn't terribly huge either.