Dear @phusis : " Indeed sufficient headroom is a prime takeaway here (regarding both speakers and amps) - that is, it’s that it actually matters, and far more than people seem to realize. "
Normally audiophiles do not cares enough about " headroom " eve3n some of them not even know what it means in electronics and especially when we are talking of speaker/amp combinations.
As a fact I learned through my first hand audio experiences when I owned thr Classé DR3-VHC This amp is a pure Class A design with a power of " only " 25 watts but in its times was only one of the few amps that handled with aplomb the Apogee Scintilla that gone even lower than 1 ohm impedance and with not high efficiency but around 79db at 3m. but ( if I remember the Classé came with 7db on headroom and from here its VHC denomination: very high current. ).
R.