Help please choosing AMP wattage for a newbe

Stanwal got it right Blindjim.

Although most amps will work with most speakers, few combinations are optimal.

So you buy a speaker (the most subjective and personal component in any system) that pleases your listening preferences and then an amp which is a very close electrical match.

Read and learn.

"Although most amps will work with most speakers, few combinations are optimal."

That's been my experience - and hard learned. To me, putting an audio system together is like trying to build a Superbowl team; there's more to it than just matching the numbers - there's personalities to deal with. That's right! I said personalities. I have no tech knowledge so I use what I know. I wish you luck.

Stanwal
"Always buy the speakers first. They are the final element of your system and have the job of turning electrical energy into sound waves."

Buy the speakers first as they are the final element?

That simply doesn't make sense to me.

Audiofeil
"Read and learn."

“Quid pro quo”, Bill.

... "Buy and try" or better still, "it's what's up front that counts" or perhaps, "All roads lead to Rome".

Here's what I've learned from experience. I've found speakers in general aren't too unlike other components. In fact I believe placing the bulk of the funds into those items in front of them is the better path. This is also my experience.

In a perfect world we would all be able to sample or audition in our homes this piece or that, these speakers or those until we find the ones wwe truly want to live with till God comes.

it ain't... and we don't.

Few if any I suspect lay out immense bucks for their “final” speaker right off. Evacuating the budget and then adding a cjheapie int or amp, source and wires to run them with.

Perhaps we should ask, huh? Just how many folks bought their dream speakers as their first speakers?

But it’s easy enough to point to I guess. It just aint a practical method for many if not all.

I’d rather have any day a great front end and then mid priced speakers than to lay out for mega priced speakers possessing a mid level front end. Always. I’ve seen this proven out time and time again in my home and at dealerships.

It’s also a safer way to go as well.

Thankfully, we live in a world which allows us to proceed at what ever rate or in whatever fashion we choose.

Even if your aim was at buying the best speakers your budget allowed for, then placing the remainder into the front end, I’d still disagree that plan equates to better or the best sounding system.

When it is proven to me that superior transducers overcome inadequacies in a systems electronics then I will have learned something else. So far however, I’ve not seen it as the case in fact.

FWIW, I'm in the Audiofeil, Stanwal, Phaelon camp: choose your speakers first.

That was the classic Linn position, spend ALL the money on the front end. You can do it this way. But the fact remains , if it doesn't come out of the speaker you won't hear it. The variation in speaker sound is far greater than in front ends or amps. Nobody suggested that you immediately purchase the most expensive speaker system you can. Try to see what kind of sound you like and then purchase a used pair of speakers part way up the chain of that type of sound. You may love them forever or trade them off in disgust but you will not be out an exorbitant amount of money. The whole question is governed by your musical taste. What kind of music do you like to listen to and at what level. If you are a vinyl user there is something to be said for putting 50% or more in a turntable. If you use CD the case is different. Technology is advancing and by the time the rest of your system catches up to your expensive CD player it is likely that something cheaper and better will be available. The central thing in audio is to learn what kind of sound you yourself like. I see all these letters searching for THE BEST. There are many kinds of good sound , and even more of bad. But THE BEST does not exist.