Can a power amp have too much power, risking damage to a speaker?

Remember this: "No amount of power will damage speakers if you use your ears and common sense to know when the recording comes into its own at a particular power level. I used a 400-watt power amp with my Electrostatic Quad speakers with absolutely no issues.

@phillyb

From the number of damaged speakers we get in for service, I dont think your idea works in practice. And Im lost when you say "know when a recording comes into its own at a particualr power level". I assume you mean that you should be able to hear when it begins to distort? Gosh I wish you were right becasue if this were true I would never get a blown speaker/driver in for service!

I’m also not clear on this idea that Recordings have a favored or preferred power level (assume you mean playback SPL). Playback systems systems do have a maximum power level, but Im not sure they have a preferred or even minimum playback SPL we could all agree on.  QUADS were notorius for having a very limited max power level and limited dynamic range so perhaps your hearing is oriented around this?  (Billy Woodman from ATC loved loved loved quads for their extreme definition).

Recording systems also have "preferred" input gain settings as well but even this is up for debate in practice. There is a well known story of the Beatles arguing with the Abbey Road Engineers that a distorted input signal (exceeding the preferred input gain of the system) was NOT a mistake.

Provided a high power amp source with multiple times the output of a quality speaker’s power handling capacity, it would usually take quite the beating for longer durations for the speaker to actually fail thermally and/or mechanically. Before that happens there’d be sonic implications going from dulled dynamics to outright strain and severe mechanical distortion, and if in the meantime one doesn’t identify these signals as warning signs, well, then I’d seriously question that individual’s ability to assess sound in a fairly skilled manner. Misuse of one thing (incl. what can lead to  all sorts of accidents, some of which are already mentioned in this thread), but unless we’re partying all night with our brains shot without any care in the world for the equipment used (not to mention our ears), most of us around here under more controlled and sober conditions should be able to properly assess when it’s time to ease off on the volume control and call it a day.

Really, it’s not that complicated. How many amps are there in the kW’s range? Buy whatever you like that fits your sonic and SPL needs, and if it means going with an amp that has more power than the speakers rated power handling, don’t worry. On the contrary, I’d worry less, because all things being more or less equal and provided again some common sense use, that amp should perform more effortlessly and with lower distortion at a given, higher SPL.