High power amplifier and small speakers??

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog!

Thanks for your responses. What if you have two amplifiers of the same quality but different power ratings (high versus low)?

For example, Totem Mani-2s are relatively small stand mounts and you better have some real big horsees driving these or they will sound like cow patties, though I have to admit that cow patties do provide difficult impedance and phase angle curves to a partnering amplifier.

I have quite high-powered amps (McCormack DNA 0.5 monos, modded by SMC Audio, which put out several hundred watts each) driving relatively small speakers (B&W 805 Signatures) and I'm really quite happy with the setup. It took me some time to get things sounding right in this room, where I've been for about a year, but I'm enjoying listening to music these days, more than in recent times. I don't think that having lots and lots of power to spare is a problem. And once in a rare while, on a Saturday afternoon when I'm pretty sure that most of my neighbors are not in, I use a little of that power, letting the White Stripes or Neil Young or even J.S. Bach fill the room. And then, the mondo power is, um, powerful.

A low-powered amp is more likely to damage the tweeters than a high powered one. The reason is Clipping distortion, caused by reaching the maximum positive/negative voltage of the power supply on high volume settings. This causes a waveform high in harmonics, which are then routed to the tweeter, possibly burning it out.

A high power amp can also burn out tweeters, but at that point it would be so loud that you, well, wouldn't listen to it that loud.