switching between two amplifiers; issues of power

@millercarbon 

So, the first amp is the lovely STA200, outputting 80wpc, and I've got it pushing a 4ohm nominal, down to 3.1 load. The amp does fine at modest volumes. I've been posting about this, from a variety of angles, for the past several weeks. It's a struggle because the amp's sonics are about as good as I would expect to do, for under maybe $3000.00 I could be mistaken and I'm eager to hear some suggestions, but I can't go the direction of tubes in this very hot climate, so we are talking ss or class D suggestions.

Back to the Nuforce: it is not recommended to run this amp on 4ohm speakers, but when I bought my Tekton's I was told the speakers run so easily it shouldn't be a problem. 

I am understanding that class D 300 wpc will run quite a bit differently, owing to crazy high efficiency, compared to SS in the Nuforce. 

1 watt into an 80% efficient amp would seem to yield 1/5 watt in heat?

Hey.  I still own some IcePower 250 modules.

1 - Do not change anything on the input while the amp is on. This includes powering up/down the preamp.

2 - Yes, you may disconnect speaker cables and reconnect them while the amp is on, but suggest muting the audio since you could feel a tingle, or accidentally short the connections.

3 - IcePowers take a very long time to warm up, like 48-72 hours, but they don't cool down in a minute.  You can leave them on except for the short period of time you are disconnecting any inputs OR turning a preamp back on.

1 watt into an 80% efficient amp would seem to yield 1/5 watt in heat?

@listening99

Yes, but they have a fixed idle power you are not accounting for, on the order of 5-10 watts. So take the efficiency and add the idle power, more or less. :)

In your example, it’s’ probably something like th 5W idle + 1/5 W = 5.2 W.

The excellent and more powerful Job amp should be on your list IF your new amp does not meet expectations. We have one in the studio, it is rarely powered down.

@tomic601 That's interesting... Mrdecibel convinced me to stay away from the Job, suggesting it would have similar difficulty, owing to the low impedance of my speakers, dropping down to 3.1 ohms, according to claims by one owner of Tekton Moabs. I also understand they not longer make the Job 225, and I understand this might be related to design flaws and reliability. I've heard a variety of reliability comments on the Job, and your comments come out on the positive side...

It seems the Job would have an easier time supporting LARGE LOUD bass notes, like the kind that open the live version of Styx's "Snowblind" (song 5, on the first disc), on their Caught in the Act, album. I'm actually more 'asking' if the Job amp would do better, specifically in terms of handling LOUD BASS and in managing heat at louder play. The Nuforce STA200 is wonderful, vivid, clear, particularly skilled in rendering the music and imparting a feeling of the space, but things shift a bit when  I'm asking for average delivery levels of 90+ db, with peaks in high 90's or above. Give it an hour in that territory and the heat sinks are VERY hot, maybe not burning, but very hot, and the entire chassis is also hot. I've always brought the volume level down at that point and things seem to cool well.

I want to clarify that aside from the heat, the other issue is that I want to be able to play the very biggest bass notes without difficulty. The NuForce does not play Royals by Lorde particularly well. I do not pursue this kind of music but rarely, but if I'm going to buy another amp, I think I want it to be able to handle the big stuff. That's the primary motivation, although I'm intrigued by class d. As mentioned, things are too hot in my home for tubes, during the summer. This is why I've got what some are reporting is an excellent low-cost decently powered class D amp heading this way...