I’ve heard it said many times that you cannot have too much power, but under-powering speakers and causing the high transients to clip the signal can do damage to any speaker; therefore, it is good to have headroom for the speakers in which to have room to function and breath properly. Using a water analogy . . . the fire department wouldn’t use a garden hose to put out a large fire. Even if there was plenty of water pressure, the hose could not handle it and would probably burst, and even if the hose was strong enough to handle that water pressure (power), it would not have the diameter to produce the VOLUME of water necessary to do the job. Having all that water pressure . . . the firemen are always prepared in any given situation to do the job; however, if the water source does not have the pressure -- no matter the associated equipment and controls, the firemen can open up their hoses at full throttle . . . and they will only get so much volume coming out, and the building will burn. Simply put, the right tools/sources to do the right job will produce the desired results and without disappointment -- if used with the proper knowledge, skills, and wisdom.
In the case of the power amp(s) being expensive, there are some class D amplifiers, that have capabilities of taking on various efficient to inefficient speakers like from 2 ohms up to 8 ohms or more with no sweat. In fact, some do so with great sound and not a high end price . . . i.e. a Crown XLS 1502 is rated at: watts/side @ 8 ohms: 330W; watts/side @4 ohms: 525W; and at watt/side @ 2 ohms: 775W. So you see, there is plenty of headroom, and this amp has level limiters so that you can set the highest limit of the amplifier’s volume to match the volume control of your preamp or input device so that you will not blow out your speakers or your ears. They have one model that has less power . . . and two models with higher power, I believe, in the XLS model.
In any case, it is always nice to have options and at reasonable prices. I have relatively inefficient speakers running at approximately 8 ohms and rated for up to 200 watts of power, and this amplifier, which can also be bridged into even higher power, has absolutely no problem running these speakers. In fact, I use a DBX to control my sound system to tune it to the room and have control over the way the speakers sound, and have thought about turning my speakers into active speakers with the DBX acting as an electronic crossover and using Crown amps for each frequency band. Right now I have the Crown operating the main speakers and my old monoblocks B&Ks (250 watts each) running the subwoofers, and the blend is seemless as the levels between the two. can easily be controlled. It is always nice to have options and versatility . . . and the Crowns do give you exactly those options.
