That "tube sound" and power ratings

09-23-14: Hazyj
Mulveling - thank you!
Great answer. Does every tube enthusiast agree with this?

LOL! Of course not! You are new to this. You will never find every enthusiast to agree on anything. Tubes, SS, digital, analog, cables, etc.

Mulveling loves high power tube amps, nothing wrong with that. My tube amp is 35 wpc and my speakers are 91 dB, no audible distortion. While I agree that no one wants to push their amp to hard, as distortion will rise quickly as you reach the clipping point. Most amps operate in a range where distortion is not a factor. I know of folks driving less efficient speakers than I have with even less power and loving it.

As Nelson Pass once said, if the first watt doesn't sound great, who wants 200 more watts?
Listen to the amp/speaker combo, and don't worry so much about numbers. I've heard amps with high power and low distortion specs sound horrible. Listen to the music and let your ears decide.

Why don't you just listen to some tube gear?

What jmcgrogan2 said. As long as the pairing of amp and speakers is appropriate the power rating is irrelevant.

"...So won't a high wattage tube amp have less of the special tube sound "tubies" like at their preferred listening volume?"

Probably... A lot of what people like is the compression and fatness that occurs when an underpowered tube amp is over driven. You'll have to try some combinations out, with your speakers, music and listening levels... The amount or lack of distortion that's pleasing to your ears, is up to you...

Jmcgrogan2 - you missed the point of the rhetorical question. were you really laughing out loud?

Swampwalker - define "appropriate"

Zkzpb8 - you got the point of the non-rhetorical question. thank you and nice response!

everyone else - i am listening to whatever I can as much as I can every other day or so. there's only so much time though, so your answers might sway me in the direction of more lower powered tube amp listening.