power

Also something to keep in mind looking at amps, not all watts are "created equal". Make sure the amp you're looking at has a stiff well designed power supply not just a high enough watt rating.

@kost_amojan

Not sure where I said 2 watts. Speaker drivers have an Xmax after which they are nonlinear and compress dynamics.

Speaker voice coil could run at 100 degrees and may be rated up to 200 degrees. 98% of power into a voice coil is dissipated as heat.

Your knowledge of Amps may be outstanding. However many or most people have a lack of understanding of speakers and make the mistake of treating them like linear devices with no power handling issues....

If your speakers compress at all within normal listening levels (i.e. other than the ear damage zone) you have crappy speakers and/or a crappy amp. Also the thing with amps sounding good is the overall design which should produce a great sounding "first watt" and the following watts are simply gravy. The speaker impedance and efficiency will pretty much tell you most of what you need to know about matching an amp to speakers, but it's gotta sound good to YOU. I've designed (and mixed with) systems for live sound using multi thousand watt amps and speaker systems that in terms of efficiency and power handling make home audio gear look weak and silly, but in my active listening home rig I use a 12 watt per side single ended Class A amp with reasonably efficient mains and a couple of powered subs…it will play louder than I need it to and sound sublime with any either calm or dynamic music I put through it because it's supposed to.

@wolf_garcia

Soundstage readily admits that many speakers deviate from linearity at 90 dB and most will deviate significantly at 95 dB. Few if any audiophile speakers that Soundstage have tested can handle 100 dB.

Take a $5000 audiophile speaker like the Monitor Audio PL100

Examine Chart 4 - Linearity at the following link

http://www.soundstagenetwork.com/measurements/speakers/monitor_audio_pl100/

Is this a crap speaker or simply a very common issue with audiophile speakers? 4dB of compression (non-linearity) at 95 dB shown on the chart for BOTH the woofer AND the tweeter response!

OMG and Soundstage says it is common and they have tested thousands of speakers.

Quote "Many speakers show slight deviations at 90dB. Most speakers start to show serious deviations at 95dB. Very few speakers can be tested at 100dB without damage. "

If most speakers can’t even cope with the dynamic range needed to represent realistic sound levels of real instruments and audiophiles are not even aware of this issue then "Houston, we have a problem."

.....perhaps people get so used to distortion from compression as a lot of pop and rock is compressed to begin with.....

I welcome comments but I don’t regard a speaker as "high fidelity" if it can’t accurately represent real music...so big power amps will only go so far unless the speaker is a very rare bird indeed.