Electrostatic speakers and low volume resolution

I agree with Douglas, whether you are concerned with bothering others or you have some hearing problems, phones could be much better than speakers. Although people tend to listen at higher volumes with phones, they are actually quite good for getting clear, articulate sound at lower volume too. Because phones really don't deliver a normal soundstage (it all sounds like it is in your head), hearing issues associated with left-right imbalance become less bothersome--you don't care as much that more sound is on one side because soundstaging is somewhat irrelevant.

I own electrostatic phones, but, I think any kind of phone will work well.

Broadstone, from the sound of it all you have to do to confirm or deny my theory is to hook up your integrated amp. With less power, you will be pushing it harder and likely not using it in the lower power region. Try it and see if your low level detail is restored. If not then we need to look at other possibilities.

I appreciate the well considered advice regarding headphones and I do use them occasionally but only to shut out competing activities in our house and to limit my intrusion on others. Even though their sound reproduction is incredibly resolved, it just doesn't sound natural to me as if, like Larryi stated, the sound is originating in my head with no sense of a soundstage. Whatever the reason, even if only psychological, for everyday listening I'll not be using them.

On the other hand, because my stated goal is to acheive better detail at lower volume settings and, as I am very satisfied with my system at moderate to higher volumes, and because chasing it in other ways would be more involved and expensive, it probably makes better sense to develop a bit more flexibility and continue to use them for those described ocassional circumstances.

I've needed to upgrade my headphones anyway so will look into that. I have the Bose noise cancellers which work well for their designed purpose but are not well suited, IMO, for anything like audiophile listening. I also have a set of "fairly" decent on-ear phones that sound OK but don't do a great job of shutting out unwanted environmental sounds.

I have a question, though, regarding length of headphone wire. Although my seating position is only about 14 feet from my amp, the length of wire necessay to reach my location w/o running it across the living room would be about 28 feet. Will this be an issue?

Atmasphere, based on advice provided in my threads and many others of yours that I've read, I'm confident that this will have a good chance for success. I would already done as you suggest, but I'm waiting for help to gain access to the back of my entertainment center. It's large and has two heavy bridges between the 2 towers that I am unable to even assist with. When my 4 grandsons return from a camping trip, maybe I can talk them into doing this "one more time".

What other issues am I likely to run into going from 220 to 80 WPC? Thanks again.

Well, you may not have enough power at higher volume levels...