enough amplifier power

"...The golden rule is that your amplifier should be about twice as powerful as your speaker can handle..."

I’ve never heard such a rule. The reality is you need an amp that at a minimum gets the job done. But if you like to really jack up the volume, you better have a good amount of headroom. RMS power is meaningless because it's the distorted peaks that kill drivers.

OP here. I am not complaining about my amplifier. I am acknowledging the likelihood that it is not enough even for my efficient loudspeakers. I think a lot of us drive our loudspeakers to amplifier distortion on dynamic peaks. Agree or disagree is the question. Perhaps I could ask for Ralph Karsten’s opinion (@Atmasphere) since he has discussed this regarding SETs in the past. Perhaps he could take it further with amplifiers in general.

You know who is bashing some of the best sounding speakers on the planet to go with some of the cheapest sounding speakers while indicating that there is no difference in SQ between them. Far far from reality. Unless you are talking about the old large klipsch speakers, I can’t listen to any other klipsch for more than a few minutes. Same goes for tektons. There are so many excellent speakers out there that cost $1000 or more that are much better than these 2 brands, but with better speakers, you will need better equipment to get them to sound their best, wether the amp needed is a SET amp or a 1200 watt monoblock 

There was a thread a while back that went something like this,

"if you were starting over, what would you do differently"

If given a do-over, the one thing I would do differently would be to start with more efficient speakers that were an easier load to drive.  That would have opened my world up to many more good amplifier possibilities at more affordable prices.  Having said that, I did find speakers I like but they are a fairly tough load and need lots of power to really sing.  Several Class A amps couldn't quite cut it and I finally found what I needed with a pair of 650 wpc monoblocks.  Having that big power does make a difference when you feel like cranking it up for that closer to real experience, but also at moderate listening levels, IMO.

Want to use low powered amps?

Efficient Speakers

and/or

Self powered subs for the power hungry bass, then you can use a much less powerful amp for your mains, both amp and speakers benefit from this. Recently, I came across an amp company that specifically stated that bass is 65% of the load.

SUBS, two, non-ported, front firing, located near mains to maintain stereo imaging, via both the primary frequency and overtones.

One sub can achieve the same advantage, I use only one self-powered sub in my office, very nice bass extension to small bookshelf speakers, think of it as ’Bose’ bass, i.e. Bass everywhere.

or: Bi-Amp,

If your full range speakers allow it. Delicate low powered amp, (much easier to try tubes) for mids and highs; Monster, probably SS for bass.