Recommended amplification

It just gives you an idea about how much power you might need. I'm with you though, I don't have much need for high power amps even though I'm sacrificing some bass control and loudness.

@bjesien

+1

My history was to use larger, higher current & power amps and to be rewarded with greater dynamics and soundstage each time. There are two aspects. Quality and quantity of the amplification. I always moved up in both… and it was always cost effective for me. 
 

Tubed amplification is very different in virtually all respects. The base requirements and slope of the line on parameters. 

While distortion is a speaker killer along with heat in the speaker voice coil .the manufacture gives guidelines for protection and so you don't get mad at them and write nasty blogs. It is true transients can require alot of watts. I have big monoblocks that never clip due to using not at thier max which is where clipping occures.yes I watch the mcintosh 1.25 run at 1 watt and sometimes wounder why I have up to 4k in transients.if you are driving inefficient speakers then you would use the wattage. Enjoy the music and the experiments

why do speaker manufacturers even list the recommended amplification numbers

it reminds of windows always recommending a ton of RAM and hard drive space, for the IT economy to grow nicely

My Vandersteen 3A's typically sounded fine with 50 watt amp, but with some music really came alive with 200 high current watts...I'm sure if I used them in a small room, at lower volume, and less dynamic music...their recommendations are simply a general guideline for most listeners, not an absolute...