What is your experience with amp power?

From my experience I generally agree with others that at sound levels of 85 dB or less one need not have an amplifier that puts out hundreds of watts per channel. Yes, how loud you listen, distance from the speakers, ceiling height, speaker sensitivity, all have an effect. But some speakers present particular challenges for amplifiers.This becomes more of an issue with larger inefficient speakers, but also with any speakers that have wide swings in their impedance curve at different frequencies. Some speakers stay close to 8 ohms or 4 ohms most of the time, while others can drop as low as 2 or 3 ohms, and a few drop even lower than that at certain frequencies. Those low impedance drops require more power from an amplifier, particularly if the drops occur in the lower frequencies reproduced by the larger bass drivers. You need to know the impedance curve of your speakers and determine if it is relatively flat, an easy load, or if it drops to a very low impedance along the frequency curve, a difficult load.

I had a personal experience with a pair of speakers I own, which are large 4 ohm, floor standing speakers with 10" woofers, but drop to a bit below 3 ohms at some frequencies. I brought home a very fine 120 w/ch @ 8 ohms Luxman integrated amp to audition at home. At modest listening levels the amp sounded fantastic. When I turned up the volume to a "live" level while listening to a symphonic piece, the amp very audibly started clipping. I immediately shut off the music to avoid damaging my speakers. Sometimes you end up learning things accidentally - the dealer explained the issue when I returned the Luxman unit. Not every amp can handle a load below 4 ohms well. Too bad because at modest listening levels it really was outstanding. But my old dual mono amp rated at 250 w/ch at 8 and 500 w/ch at 4 ohms never breaks a sweat driving my speakers, even at volumes in the 95 dB range. I can’t say the greater power rating makes my amp sound better at lower volumes, but that may be a trait of my speakers, which sound better at higher volumes. Then again at higher volumes there is more discernible bass, something true for all speakers, which is why old gear had "loudness" buttons or switches to boost those frequencies at low listening levels.

Happy listening.

Some speakers benefit from current and damping.   Not all watts are created equal.    Most good SS amps deliver a lot of current and have corresponding high damping. Not a fan of lesser built high power SS amps that deliver lots of watts but not much current.  

Some speakers benefit from current and damping.   Not all watts are created equal.    Most good SS amps deliver a lot of current and have corresponding high damping. Not a fan of lesser built high power SS amps that deliver lots of watts but not much current with most speakers. 

In general smaller speakers with extended bass, which tend to be the most popular and the least efficient, require high power high current SS amps to sing. Larger and more efficient speakers may be easier to drive but often lack of extended bass is the reason. So you have to know what you are dealing with in regards to speakers and how well they might perform in a particular room and make sure the amp is up to the task. That’s basically it in a nutshell. Bigger rooms are harder to conquer. Small ones not so much. It’s largely a matter of scale. Just avoid clipping or over driving a lesser speaker. The devil is always in the details.

More power doesn't now, nor will it ever, equal better sound. If that were the case, a 2A3 Sun amp would sound terrible since it puts out a whopping 3.5 wpc. This should be common sense but based on most of the tripe posted here, common sense in the audiophool world isn't very common.