@timintexas I think part of the issue is that the amps ratings are given for continuous, static, steady-state power. When delivering continuous, steady-state power, then power can be rated in Watts and measured as current delivered at a certain voltage across a certain resistance and/or given off as heat. The real issue with your situation is that the amp’s rating is only a starting point; all it means is that it can furnish 80 Watts into 8 Ohms of impedance. Impedance is measured in Ohms, but it is defined as resistance in an AC (not DC) circuit. The music signal is AC and inductors (like speaker coils) and capacitors (like power supply capacitors and capacitors that ‘couple’ one stage to another present resistance which dependent on the the frequency of the signal. An inductor’s impedance varies directly with the frequency; a capacitor’s impedance varies inversely. Music presents a host of frequencies all at once. But I digress.
The point I most wanted to make is that once the DC bias has been set for tubes or bipolar transistors, there is little that is steady state about driving a set of speakers like the Magnepans. The difficulty they present to the amplifier is that their resistance (impedance) they offer to the amp is ‘spastic’ as one person put it above. For one frequency they might offer 2 Ohms of resistance (usually lower notes), for another it may be 16 Ohms; meanwhile the amp’s designer may have as many as five voltage rails inside the amp, each with it’s own power supply which the amp is supposed to switch in and out as needed depending on the load it is presented. A speaker’s spastic impedance curve can simply overwhelm the amp that hasn’t got gobs of reserve power stored in capacitor banks and/or mediated by impedance matching output transformers or the like.
Of course, if an amp has this kind of reserves, I’m sure they would let you know it.
Considering things from the speaker side, The manufacturer may slap a rating like ‘4 Ohms, 255 Watts’ on a speaker, but unless you can see an impedance trace for a relevant frequency spectrum, the figure means very little, except it is going to take more power to drive it than an 8 Ohm speaker.
In my opinion, for which there is no fee, if you’re serious about listening to the Maggie’s, you need to start with the question, ‘Can anyone recommend an amplifier that can drive my speakers?’ Add the exact model number, and, if possible date of manufacture or S/N. You could add stipulations like preference for tubes or solid state, balanced or unbalanced connections, phono stage (or not), budget, etc
You can post a description about your system under ‘Virtual Systems,’ but you must include a photo.
Good Luck!