I’m beginning to think I need about 200W per channel, as my 160W monoblocks are not quite doing the job.
Maybe the way to go is solid state at the price range I’m looking at ($2000-3000).
Any opinions on which way to go?
Well, if 160 watts is not quite getting the job done, 200 watts won't give you much more, maybe 1 dB if you're lucky.
I would think you would need 300-400 watts to drive those speakers.
300-400 watts, for $2-3K, yeah, you're only choice is solid state.
Or, as Douglas and Shardone have implied, get different speakers which are easier to drive.