The first watts

Onhwy61:

Unless you listen at very loud levels, say 85dB or higher, your amp will operate in class A most of the time.

It's partially right. The other part totally depends on speaker. The current demand can be even at lower volume levels especially at crossover points and lower frequencies.

After transition from class A (both transistors conducting) to class B (only one transistor conducting at given moment) it is already linear and class name doesn't make any difference. Actually, increasing bias point to keep it longer in class A would increase distortion (overbias) since it increases area of double gain (gm doubling) caused by the fact two transistors operate instead of one.

I used to have a full class a amp that one could cook a steak on. I didn't feel the marginal benefits were worth the price, weight, and excessive heat.

for the record I'm using Thiel CS 2.4's

11-21-14: Jmcgrogan2
Power works on a logarithmic scale, meaning that 100 wpc will sound twice as loud as 10 wpc (+3dB).

Whoops, that should read +10 dB. 10 times the power gives you twice the volume, or +10 dB. Sorry about that confusion.

So 10 watts is twice as loud as 1 watt. So your speakers, rated at 87 dB @ 1 watt, should be able to get up to 97 dB in an amp that switches over to Class AB at 10 wpc. Probably most of your listening would be in Class A, unless you are a headbanger.