Had big amps in the past, Perreaux, Krell, etc. but now go tubing with a 30 Watt Triode/60 Ultra-linear Cary piece. Can't see myself ever going back unless I absolutely fall in love (again) with a power hungry speaker. System symmetry is paramount. Have to pay close attention to what components get mated togther. I'm in the pocket right now with my modest setup
30 to 50 watts seems to be all I desire
Weird, but in my small listening room (12x16) no matter the speakers used, to a T they all can be driven quite superbly with amps in the 30 to 50 watt range. This includes the Maggie 1.7.
I had a few 200 watt amps in rotation but took them out for now because I never got past about 8:00 or at most 9:00 on the preamp, and oftentimes it was around the 7:30 mark.
So I personally don’t buy into the lower efficiency speakers needing gobs of power to sound good. Caveat: Listening to mainly Jazz at volumes less than 85db, normally.
Cheers, all.