Watts! How many do we need?

@bigtwin -- the one thing missing in the info you posted is a reference to the listening volume in the room. Not everyone wants live rock concert volume in their home.

The other common mistake concerns the level of peaks above the average playback volume. People often think that recordings have more dramatic peaks than they actually do.  Digital recordings in particular have a max level that can't be exceeded. I've used Adobe Audition for years to edit all manner of recordings -- rock, folk, jazz, classical and others.  One thing I've noticed, in particular in reference to albums recorded since the advent of digital in studios, is the volume uniformity of drum strikes -- a common source of audible peaks in music. Viewed digitally, one can easily see that dynamic peaks have been limited during the recording process. The uniformity is is sharp contract to the variable peaks one sees from old LPs recorded on analog tape. Even with the latter there was a max possible volume that could recorded on the tape so limiters were still used so the average playback level wouldn't be too soft. No one wants the average level so low that background noise gets in the way.

@ghdprentice 

I’ve been looking at SF speakers and the dealer I’ve been talking to has mentioned several times that “These speakers need a lot of watts to sound good!”  One of the speakers I am looking at is the Amity G5 and he said that it needed 600 watts to really sing.  And I immediately thought of you and had to stifle a laugh.  He’s talking and I’m imagining you with 600 X 2 watts of ARC tube equipment.

@mlsstl  I'll be the first to admit how little I know about much of this hobby.  I believe what Sanders is trying to get across is the fact that many people are oblivious to the fact their amps may be clipping and are under powered, and that their system could sound even better with a higher powered amp?.  I suspect you don't need to be playing at excessive volume to be stressing an amp.  I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, that the load the speaker presents to the amps has a lot to do with it.  I owned a pair of Acoustic Zen Crescendo Mark ll.  When you look at the impedance graph, that speaker is almost a flat line at 6 ohms.  Extremely easy on your amp.  My current speakers are the opposite.  Dipping as low as 1 ohm which is a punishing load.  Luckily my amps are stable at 1 ohm.  In summary, I found the Sanders article very interesting and will assume he knows a lot more about this than I do. I don't think it ever hurts to read the lengthy papers written by the designers and builders.   Cheers, 

As I think I remember @ghdprentice  typing, I have also read that maybe not all watts are created equal.

👍 @immatthewj I did mention that and I think @curiousjim ’s dealer is trying to make Sonus Faber sound more like Wilson. I think he is trying to put so much fast current to them (and probably a lean midrange) to increase slam. These speakers are made to reproduce natural sounding music not to do shock and awe. I know it is hard to attribute intent to others. But I have heard SF with very high powered solid state amps, they do make them sound better to me.