Too much power?

@zlone yes, thanks for checking the details, I have EC 220, and used to have 2 as mono blocks.. long story short was trying the EC AW 180.. but my question really was if any of these crazy powerful amps are even necessary when listening at any humane volume. I will say that power ratings are pretty useless to judge actual quality, but money tends to be the equalizer in most decisions. More powerful = more expensive.

I understand, but thought it worth raising the point given the speakers. I went through something similar with my difficult to drive LS50's, starting with a 75 watt amp and ending up with 150 watts. I listen in the 70-80 db range as well and found the higher powered amps gave me a richer sound and fuller bass. Different vendors though, so some of that could be house sound. 

1. Headroom. See Sanders amp white paper.

2. No

3. Proper inflation is the ticket.

@mulveling I think that’s an interesting observation. I find many/most systems don’t seem to perform until they reach a certain DB.. now you’re right about the exponential cost of loudness, but if you get the bass right (2 subs) it seems to be more than satisfying..

@dain There’s definitely some gear that falls apart at lower volumes, for whatever reason (non-linearities such as class AB crossover distortion, etc). But I think the bigger issue is our human hearing response curves, and how it heavily favors midrange frequencies as the volume level drops low (this is how speech maintains intelligibility even at a whisper). This means that systems which boost the bass and treble frequencies will sound more "whole" at lower volumes. Conversely, systems with a truly flat response may need to be throttled to "come alive". This was the whole premise between "loudness" buttons on stereo gear of the past.

@dain  OK, I'm dating myself, but "back in the day" I found that some of the then "high powered" amps (like 200 watts per channel) to me didn't sound "good" until you cranked it up.

Fast forward to the 2000's and when I "saw the light at the end of the tunnel" with my kids' college costs, and started my journey into the "high end", I found that the more powerful amps seemed to sound like they had more "air" around the music, that they were not struggling to drive the speakers...and like you, I don't play music that loud.

@carlsbad   I'm with you on the loud volumes played at audio shows!