That "tube sound" and power ratings

Clipping is the most common and pervasive form of distortion in most cases.

Unless you only listen at very low volumes, there is a very good chance that clipping and related forms of distortion will come into play and degrade sound quality in ways that might not be very apparent.

Its not that hard to avoid clipping. Just do not use an amp that is underpowered to drive the speakers. Use more power not less as an insurance policy. Most speaker manufacturers understate the power needed to drive their speakers optimally in order to keep markets open.

If your speakers are even moderately efficient, that helps a lot in terms of choosing an amp that is up to the task.

If you will only listening at low volumes, then none of this matters all that much. The world is your oyster and almost any amp/speaker combo might do.

Once teh amp is up to the task of driving the speakers OPTIMALLY, then you are in a position to determine what other remaining forms of distortion to choose among based on what you hear.

Public Enemys (of good sound):

1) room acoustics
2) amp clipping
3) choose your poison

Note that most tube amps (and some SS amps) soft clip which is why fewer watts seem to go further. But the clipping still occurs, though it will take more volume before the results become clearly unpleasant. But any clipping is distortion. You loose dynamics whic is what adds the excitement to a lot of music. If you don't care about that and only listen to small ensemble chamber music, you might be fine, but eventually you may realize what you are missing and look elsewhere.

Look, solid state uses electron junctions that are squished inside doped silicon. In tubes, electrons are free and happy. All Watts are the same ;-)

Wow. Quick first responses! But before this gets too far in, I better qualify that I didn't mean that I'm new to EE or Physics or high-end audio listening. However, I am new to tubes as they're used in audio equipment. So my question is only partially about the physics/engineering behind tube implementation in audio. I realize that theory and circuitry may very well be part of any good explanation, so I don't want to discourage it. But the main question is about what tube enthusiasts like to hear and how they achieve that sound at their preferred listening levels.

I think Atmasphere understands where I'm coming from. In fact he/she may have answered part of my question, but I'd like to hear other viewpoints.

Mapman, I'm sure you have some good insight now that (hopefully) I've explained a bit better. I'm sure you know more about the subject than me and I look forward to more input from you. However my question is more subjective than came across. How does a tube enthusiast choose the right power for their system given that they actually may prefer more distortion of the right harmonics? If they choose a higher power amp I'm assuming (and yes I might be wrong!) that there will be less of the DESIRED distortion that adds to the fun of tubes.

Czarivey, I appreciate the input but you misunderstood the point that not all watts are created equal. They most certainly are not, or we'd all have $200 Bose equipment and stop there.