Risk using amp Wattage than speaker rating?

Elizabeth... no, I wouldn't be too concerned with anything you mentioned. Sounds like you've had a few bad experiences though!

Thanks for input Molocka12

I'm sure Elizabeth can handle a little levity. But all kidding aside, It is very easy to slowly fry your drivers too. It may still sound clean even though the amp is seriously clipping. In this case you won't end it with a bang, but turn it on the next time and the voice coils could be warped and rubbing or output is way down because a short has welded the coil in places. 30 years later, I still have a grudge against NAD for burning up my beautiful B&W DM7's in exactly this way.

Having repaired speaker systems for a couple decades; I can assure you that high powered amps can damage low power rated systems. Crossover capacitors are rated for only so many volts, and lots of manufacturers skimp there. I've lost count of how many aluminum electrolytics(cheap/cheap) I've seen popped like firecrackers. The drivers themselves(cone or dome type) can EASILY exceed their maximum linear excursion range and either bottom(and crush) the voicecoil, or destroy it on the top edge of the magnet structure. Then there is the ubiquitous fried/overpowered voice coil, caused by more wattage than the driver was designed for. Overdriving an amp causes clipping(very high freq distortion- resembles a square wave on an O-scope), which a crossover network will pass first to the tweeter, and toast it. Owning a shoppe in Winter Park(FL), surrounded by over eighteen college campuses, and a plethora of live(and canned) music venues; I saw LOTS of damage caused by overpowering. However; I would estimate the clipping damage(tweeter replacements) to have been twice as high(post traumatic college party syndrome). I always recommended a higher powered amp as safer, and cleaner sounding, for any given system.

I can't remember the last time I had amps that actually fell within the recommended range --- below the upper limit, anyway -- for the speakers I was using, and I've never had a problem.

@Rodman99999 - I'm a little confused by your response. Maybe I am misunderstanding, but you seem to be saying that you've seen a lot of damage to speakers being driven by amps rated higher than the speaker mfg's recommended wattage, but in the end you "always recommended a higher powered amp as safer, and cleaner sounding, for any given system". I guess you are saying a high power rating for an amp is good (even if above the mfg's recommended range), as long as you don't go overboard on the dB's? Is that correct?