Too much power?

70 dB may be too low for good listening. I'm sure recordings are mastered at significantly higher levels than this. And our hearing response is level related. The lower the level the poorer our hearing at low and high frequencies(I seem to recall flat is at 100 dB). So if you listen at levels lower than the recording was mastered at, the level the mastering engineer set his sense of octave to octave balance, you're missing out on lows and highs and that probably results in the loss of excitement.

With ny one set of monoblocks  I changed speakers that were much harder to drive a d with the bigger load on the amp they system  came to life. The speaker needs to match the amp 

@dain    It is true that different systems perform differentially at different volume levels.  So uncomplicate the issue.  First determine what volume you like listening at.  After all. your music and your system are playing for your benefit.

Then listen to competing systems all at that level - get a dB meter and set the volume using a steady state sine wave at about 600Hz being a mid-frequency level.  Choose the system you like the most.

Most people don’t realize that they probably use only 5 watts during normal listening levels. However, having the reserve power for transients is very important and adds greatly to the performance of your system, That being said, higher wattage amplifiers don’t always mean louder. In fact it take exponentially, more wattage to produce a noticeable increase in loudness. I’m sure there are more knowledgeable individuals in this post who can explain in more depth but my point is don’t expect a larger amplifier to be “louder” just because it has more wattage output. Quality over quantity..

Great points. Thanks. I also needed to update my system in the forum. It’s all EC from dac to preamp, and yes, @ghdprentice I changed the preamp from Freya+ to EC and was very impactful. My amp seems plenty able to drive the Maggie’s loud, I just find the need to do that less necessary, mainly because of the bass impact from EC seems very effective at delivering current. >70 amps rating. I looked, the 180 monoblocks I tried have >100 amps and I looked up Parasound flagship >140 amps. I suppose even at 1 watt that this current or push has some positive effects, but it done any seem at my preferred listing level moving to the more powerful amps would accomplish much except draining my bank account. As @tomcarr said, enjoy and stop the FOMO.