Is there such a thing as too much power?

I’ve never heard it, but it’s said, to reproduce the cannon shot in the 1812 Overture, an amp needs 700+ watts to reproduce it.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say to reproduce a cannon shot you need a cannon- as otherwise in terms of power its logarithmic and you can forget 700 watts, as that is only a measly 3dB more than 350 watts. A gun shot is 140dB, a cannon certainly louder than that. But even 140dB, again, its a log scale. Say your speakers are 100 dB at 1 watt. 10 watts then is 110dB. To get to 120dB calls for 100 watts. You can see where this is going.... 130 dB, 1000 watts. 140dB 10k watts.

Again, that's a gun. Not a cannon. I've heard- felt- the cannon at Gettysburg. If that is the criterion having enough power is the least of your problems.

So what is it burns out speakers then? 
Don't quit your day job.

A lot of the stuff people believe about power makes an awful lot of sense. The only problem is that while the reasons make sense on paper they don't work out nearly so well in the real world. 

Point of order: one low-powered amp that sounds better than one high powered amp is by simple logic proof that power isn't everything. We have not one but hundreds of low powered amps that sound hugely better than thousands of much higher powered amps. So clearly something else is going on. 

What I think is going on, power is but one small item on a very long list of things that matter. In fact its kind of weak and pointless to qualify that. Its what I know is in fact going on. The list of things that affect sound is so much greater and longer than we know that it often strikes me as pointless to even be talking about them. 

I mean to talk about how many watts an amplifier puts out, in terms of sound quality, we might as well be talking about how many grains of sand in judging the beach at Cancun. Which would be a pretty nice beach... anywhere else but Cancun.

@millercarbon Hey I own a 78 911 SC ! Not the fastest car out there, but like you said well designed to use the power that it has all day long! To the extreme I just sold my 96 911 993 Turbo that was modified 600,hp/595 lb of torque
That car was amazing! 

Careful readers will notice I said you can have too much power in an amp, and you can have too much power in a Corvette. But I never said you can have too much power in a Porsche. Porsche actually even has a name for it: GT2.

Stand by- Krell is currently working on the answer. 

Current-ly. Get it?

Admittedly not much of a joke. But then neither is this subject. I mean, the idea anyone still thinks power correlates with quality is mildly entertaining.  But its no joke. Its just funny anyone still thinks that way.

Would you rather have a 500hp car which you do not stress, or a 150hp car which is almost always working at its limit.

Lol! I would rather have a car with superb throttle response.

Awful example. My 1979 Porsche 911SC has only 180 hp and I can assure you it will do 150 mph and is hardly ever working at its limit. Which even if it is, that is what its designed to do! Run flat out! Its just an awful comparison.

I went for a autocross ride one time in a Corvette that had been stripped down, roll-caged, and NASCAR engined to something like 700-800 hp. Who knows maybe 900. Whatever. Instant that car came on the cam both monster fat Hoosier slicks started smoking laying down the biggest fattest burnout stripes you ever saw in your life. The car was all but uncontrollable.

You can never have too much power- if all you want is power. If what you want instead is control, well then its very easy to have too much power. Its all a matter of priorities.

Would be nice if a few more would get it.

The most important thing to know when it comes to power is the great Robert Harley quote, "If the first watt isn't any good, why would you want 200 more of them?"