Amplifier current vrs watts; why is current more important?

As someone who imports and sells a line focused on current vs. wattage, I have a POV. Art Audio amps are biased toward current. That is, our amps are high current and deliver lower wattage vs. many of our competitors. This means that with any given tube, we could deliver a much higher wattage number but opt against it.

This absolutely does allow for better handling of lower impedance speakers. But that is not the only reason and it is not just marketing.

The extra current delivers better frequency extremes. You get lighter & airier treble with better nuance and detail. Bass response is tighter and more refined. Maximize wattage in SET or Push Pull triode and treble gets rolled off and bass gets flabby.

Most of this is false. Current does not exist without voltage; further, wattage does not exist without voltage and current. IOW you can't make one (current) without the others (voltage and wattage).

Similarly, extra current (if it were somehow to exist) does not affect bandwidth. What **does** affect bandwidth is output transformers; generally speaking the bigger you make them the less bandwidth you get. In voltage amplifiers if you can't put enough current through the tube you might lose some high frequency bandwidth; that is why 12AX7s are not a good input tube to use in a power amplifier unless bandwidth isn't important.

Similarly, extra current (if it were somehow to exist) does not affect bandwidth. What **does** affect bandwidth is output transformers; generally speaking the bigger you make them the less bandwidth you get.

This seems to be limited to tube amp which requires an output transformer.  Interestingly, atmasphere specializes in OTL tube amp which does not need an output transformer.  But this seems to be getting away from the OP original question.  

Andy2-you were a little off on your car comparison. Wattage/current is kind of like a car horsepower/torque. Torque is your bottom end power. Torque will get you off the line much faster or when you want to pull away. Some cars could have decent horsepower with low torque and that means its gets off the line slower, no power to pass, and all the horsepower is at a higher rpm. Your Sony/pioneer amps might have a decent wattage rating but no current to drive the lower end or react instantly to high peaks

rbstehno,

I guess no analogy is perfect!  It's up to one's choosing.