What does moving from a 150 watt amp to a 400 watt amp get you?


Hi all, I’m coming back to tap the knowledge of the forum again.  I have a pair of revel ultima studio 2s that I very much enjoy. I’m currently running them with an Ayre V-5xe.  I’ve seen others say that these speakers need to be driven by 400 Watts to get them to sound their best.  I sort of understand the relationship between wattage and sound volume, but if I am not looking for “louder” what do I get with a more powerful amp?  I don’t hear clipping. More current?  But what does that do?  Sorry for my ignorance!
miles_trane
+1 what initforthemusic and timlub said. MOST of the rest of the responses do not match my 45 years of experience in this hobby. But quality will matter over quantity, and I love great big power supplies.
Good listening,

I don't see why an average sensitivity speaker (say 88 to 91 dB/Watt) with an impedance that reaches a low of 3-4 ohms would need a 500-watt amplifier. Every doubling of the output level requires a tenfold increase in the power delivered to the speaker. So, let's assume we have a speaker with a 90dB/watt sensitivity. 10 watts will result in a 100 dB SPL (sound pressure level, the actual measure used to describe the loudness we hear). A 100 watts will result in 110 dB SPL. Considering that most amplifiers can supply, for a very brief period, double their RMS, or continuous, power output, a 200-watt brief signal will result in nearly a 115 dB SPL sound level. Other than using your rig to make people deaf, or induce tinnitus in their ears, or develop some really bad relationships with your neighbors, there are very few musical events that go this loud. Maybe the very highest peaks of a symphony will reach these levels. So I will always vote for quality over quantity, provided that the amplifier I choose will meet my basic requirements for reproducing what are to my ears, loud enough peak SPL's.
Invite a 170 pound 60 year old to hit you like a football tackle. Then invite a 260 pound college football player to hit you like a football tackle. Take the data generated and apply tangentially to amps.  

Glad I could clarity that for you.  ;)  
It's all about sensitivity and headroom. If your speakers make 90db with one watt. Then they will use one watt no mater if you have a 50 watt or 500 watts amp connected to them . The only difference is you paid a lot for those extra 499 watts that your not using. You need headroom for the loud spikes especially in classical music but 15db should be more than enough. So to get that headroom you need your amp will need  to deliver 16watts. Quality watts are expensive.  Doubling an amps power often means a doubling any of its problems plus a quadrupling of the price. If you don't need them then it's better to go with a lower powered amp with higher quality watts.
“What does moving from a 150 watt amp to a 400 watt amp get you?”

250 watts yuck yuck!

sorry, just couldn’t resist!!