Same watts at 8 and 4 ohms?

The distortion vs. output profile is a little more complicated than explained earlier. Please see figures 5 and 7 for what a very well behaved linear amp’s output usually looks like vs. output power.


https://www.stereophile.com/content/luxman-l-509x-integrated-amplifier-measurements


The limiting factor is often notch or crossover distortion, which is constant and occurs near zero output. As the output rises this distortion becomes a smaller proportion. Of course, eventually the amplifier will clip and distortion is dominated by the top of the waveform being flattened as the voltage at the output reaches the voltage of the power rails.
Of course I am a Luxman fanboy but this curve is very common.

Okay Guys, 

Not to steal the OP's thread but I have what I think is a similar question in the spirit of the thread. 

My main speakers are Thiel CS5's and we have talked on other threads  about how they are a difficult load as they dip close to 2 ohms and 82 dbl sensitivity. There has also been associated discussion about how more power can mean more noise.

I have been thinking about the idea of less power creating less distortion and the ability to hear more detail.

Assuming my last sentence has some validity, and wanting to try something a bit different, I am taking delivery on a pair of speakers rated at 8 ohms and 88 dbl sensitivity that I do not believe dip below 6 ohms.

I probably do not listen to most music louder than say 91 dbl at about 9 feet. 

So... what watts do I need to be happy with a good tube amp? I have been hallucinating that a tube amp with a good 25 watts into 8 ohms and that holds 25 watts into 4 ohms should work quite well as a place to start.

Am I anywhere near to correct about this? What else should I consider?

My apologies to the OP if I am too off topic here.

Thanks for listening,

Dsper

Every time a question like this comes up it reminds me what a good decision I made way back in the 1970’s to avoid hard to drive speakers with low sensitivity. It just makes life so much easier. Doesn’t hurt that every hard to drive low sensitivity speaker I ever heard never sounded that good to me. Maybe because they were never used with an amp that could make them sound good? That could be it. But whatever, who cares, not my problem!

It was only much later on that I discovered tube watts and solid state watts are nowhere near the same. People can howl all they want, throw all the technical mumbo jumbo they want, when you hear 50 tube watts have more authority than 200 SS watts you have to admit all the words in the world can’t change the fact tubes just plain sound way more powerful than they measure.

Put it all together and you blew it once, and are blowing it again. Just not by as much this time. But its no hallucination. If anything stands a chance of making those speakers sound good its a good tube amp. I drove Talon Khorus for 15 years with 50-60 watt tube amps, and they went a lot louder than you're talking. So you will probably be fine.

Well, in my defense (as if speaker choice needs defending) I got both sets of my speakers for free and driven properly they both sound amazing to my far-from-golden ears. 

Baconboy you can take it for what it's  worth, I’ve read reviews of the NAD C388 driving maggies and other hard to drive speakers. I used the C388 with some Ohm Walsh 2000 and it handled them with ease. You should probably check some maggie threads and see what others use.