Can you ever have too much power?

Hmmmmmmm, I've always felt that when an amp was running too close to its limits, the sound wasn't as good as when it was just crusin' along not being pushed. I think some headroom is a good thing.

Yes, you can have too much power.

Being a confirmed fan of Class A (Sumo, NEW, Classe, Atma-Sphere, Llano and now Plinius) and planar speakers (ML, Soundlab and now Apogees), power is a major issue in my audio life. I don't believe you can have too much. Having said that, there are volume control, sound quality and heat issues as pointed out above quite accurately (Fatparrot - Plinius amps have a bias switch that allows you to keep the amp warm in AB and ramp up to A in a few minutes - a very handy and unique feature, even better than the standby mode of tube amps). Could I cook my ribbons if I cranked the Plinius all the way up? Probably yes. But I couldn't stand to be in the room, so I think I'm safe from power excess. At the same time I've heard JA-200s clip on acoustic guitar through Apogees - 180W of Class A tube power was not enough! I would compare power to breast size (or horsepower if you like the auto analogy): in general, more is better, but after a point it becomes ridiculous! Let your results in your system be your guide.

Nalu...great post, and thanks for the info about Plinius. I was unaware of the class A/B standby mode. Great idea...but are there any trade-off's (there usually are in audio). Things like more complicated circuit design, with a greater cost and pehaps more electrical devices (to fail), or a circuit that is not quite as stable. Again, I'm not saying any of these are true, I just don't know. But the following is truism of life, espescially in audio design, "T.A.N.S.T.A.A.F.L." or, "there aint no such thing as a free lunch!"

I do not clearly remember the formula, old age is setting in on the brain cells, but to double your sound level output, in general terms, don't you need 10 times as much power? So...going from a 100 watter to a 250 watter really does not greatly increase your output capabilities. That said, the bigger amp will do some things the smaller one may not and sometimes vice versa.