That "tube sound" and power ratings

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.

If you have relatively efficient speakers (89 to 90db or around there) and a relatively powerful amp that's not one of those tiny wattage esoteric gizmos, you can stop worrying and simply enjoy the damn thing. If the amp doesn't hum or explode and is made by a company that isn't insane, and it sounds good, you're only going to be using about 5 watts most of the time. Seriously...I use a classic old school (but new design with better than old amp innards) push pull amp with something like 65 watts per side and, fortunately, all of the watts sound great...who knew? One thing experienced guitar players have learned from tube amps is they all sound somewhat different from each other, and often WAY different based on output tubes, input tubes, yo mama...etc...but reasonably well made hifi tube stuff often defies the techno bullshit schools of design trendiness and simply works. Try one.