High Current amps are not "myth". The fact is that there are two good reasons for this so-called "myth" existing.
The first is the case of speakers that actually have low impedance dips and/or are simply low impedance. In such cases amps that are not designed to handle the higher current AT the power supply's voltage will have problems of several sorts. Including blowing up or blowing fuses.
The second case is where the current available from the power supply is insufficient to supply enough current to a low - Z load at peak output - and the rail sags in voltage. Often the rail sag can be significant. Old tube amps are notorious for this, as are "big" solid state receivers as well as all too many otherwise decently made solid state power amps.
As for tube amps, it is perfectly possible to design a tube amp to drive almost any load, low-Z or not. You simply have to have the proper output transformer to match the plates of the tubes. I know of one person who uses 2 x 211s in parallel for a SE amp that runs some ML CLSII speakers. It works just fine, not surprisingly.
In the case of a tube amp, one often finds "soft clipping" so that tube watts *seem* to be more since the advent of clipping can be excused by the ear much more easily than the often hard clipping of a bipolar transistor amp.
The issue of amp power vs speaker sensitivity is often more related to (as someone mentioned) your room size/listening distance, the sort of music you listen to and the level at which you listen to it. How absorptive your room is also plays a role in the perceived volume.
With that 100+ watt tube amp you should be able to listen to peaks up around 100dB with no strain - this implies an average "medium" listening level of about 88-90dB and source material that is not super dynamic (where the average level is >20 dB below the peaks...
Of course, try it and see what happens!
:- )
The first is the case of speakers that actually have low impedance dips and/or are simply low impedance. In such cases amps that are not designed to handle the higher current AT the power supply's voltage will have problems of several sorts. Including blowing up or blowing fuses.
The second case is where the current available from the power supply is insufficient to supply enough current to a low - Z load at peak output - and the rail sags in voltage. Often the rail sag can be significant. Old tube amps are notorious for this, as are "big" solid state receivers as well as all too many otherwise decently made solid state power amps.
As for tube amps, it is perfectly possible to design a tube amp to drive almost any load, low-Z or not. You simply have to have the proper output transformer to match the plates of the tubes. I know of one person who uses 2 x 211s in parallel for a SE amp that runs some ML CLSII speakers. It works just fine, not surprisingly.
In the case of a tube amp, one often finds "soft clipping" so that tube watts *seem* to be more since the advent of clipping can be excused by the ear much more easily than the often hard clipping of a bipolar transistor amp.
The issue of amp power vs speaker sensitivity is often more related to (as someone mentioned) your room size/listening distance, the sort of music you listen to and the level at which you listen to it. How absorptive your room is also plays a role in the perceived volume.
With that 100+ watt tube amp you should be able to listen to peaks up around 100dB with no strain - this implies an average "medium" listening level of about 88-90dB and source material that is not super dynamic (where the average level is >20 dB below the peaks...
Of course, try it and see what happens!
:- )