Hybrid vs. Straight Tubes

In regards to this issue of power.

Today I audtioned a really nice Leben CS600 amp (32 watts). Unfortunatlely price wise it is more than I can afford right now. The dealer had as an alternative CS200 with only 10 watts of power. He claimed that it should suffice for my RS6s...

I don't get it! I used to think that wattage was directly related to volume. I know now that this isn't the case, but what does wattage provide (this seem like a very obvious questions)? How can I know that a given amp will be suitable for speakers?

Wattage still does relate to loudness, but you also get the same loudness with less power if you have more efficient speakers. The other issues is how an amp handles clipping (tubes do it well, SS not so good), and short dynamic output for handling transients - and you can't really tell that from wattage. Some 50 watt amps have tremendous dynamic power that is only needed for very short periods of time and can sound every bit as "loud" and a 200 watt amp that doesn't handle transient power delivery quite as well. I can tell you a Pass XA30.5 sounds like a lot more power than many other "30 watt" amps.

Have owned SS up until just a few days ago, when I had and took the opportunity to trade my Nuforce class D 160w mono's for a Cary Rocket 88R (30w triode/60 ultralinear). Despite the low power rating I notice no degradation in sound quality, even at fairly loud levels running in triode. I was afraid that my Usher 87db/8 ohm (dipping into 4 ohms) speakers wouldn't be a good match for tubes. The Cary is happily putting that notion to bed. Quite happy with the sound.

I'll add that I had 3 different tubed preamps in front of my SS amps over the time I owned them, none of the combinations have come close to the character of the tube amp/passive pre combo I'm running now. The magic IME lies in tubed amplification.