Yes, but remember, back in the day, 86 db was pretty darn good speakers for standard air moving drivers. Not withstanding horns which are incredibly efficient and only require very low power to drive you out of the room. Back in the day, amps clipped routinely and most (not all) amp manufacturers openly lied about their specs. I'm not saying that you need rediculous power to drive speakers. What I am saying is that you have to make sure you match the amp/cables to the speaker you intend to use. 86 db is absolutely not efficient and based on a speaker's db/watt rating, you need more power capability out of a decent amp to drive an 86 db speaker well. Also, just to clear up something I read earlier, amps are rated by what their sensitivity (input voltage for the input signal) is to get rated output power. So, look at most amps, their sensitivities are pretty close to the same. Sort of a industrial standard. So the power rating of the amp has really nothing to do with volume. It is the signal coming into the amp and the amp's sensitivity. for example, a certain Mark Levinson amp has an input sensitivity of 1 volt for 250 watts output into 8 ohm load. Same for other amps for lower watt output. 1 volt input. But, my point here is say you have a 100 wpc class A solid state amp with a 1 volt input sensitivity. If this is a true class A amp (and I mean class A output bias at rated output), and it doubles the rated output for halfing the load. 100 watts for 8 ohms, 200 watts for 4 ohms, etc. There is no way this amp won't be able to drive your 86 db speakers well. Lesser efficient speakers require more powerful amps (better power supply capacity) to drive them. Engineering 101. Speakers with strange loads like electrostatics require solid, well designed amps that can handle the lower speaker impedances. ie. more power handling capacity. For more efficient speakers (horns, etc.) you don't need nearly as much power for the rated db output at 1 watt. So, when you buy speakers, make sure you buy an amp that absolutely is able to drive the speaker well (IN YOUR ROOM). Also, don't forget that changing amps also means that the integration of that amp to your system changes the system dynamics. in other words, that amp may not work well with your cables and your pre-amp. So, it may not be the new amp that is the problem. I evaluate one item at a time. If it is an amp. I don't change anything else. either I like it or I don't. I don't play with cables, etc.
enjoy
