If your speakers really are 88 dB's and you've got a decent sized room, you better start looking for something that will do at least 150 - 200 tube watts or 200 - 250 SS watts rms per channel @ 8 ohms. That is, if you want to be able to play reasonably loud and not distort on peaks.
While i tend to crank things a lot harder than most people, I've got several sets of speakers in that same sensitivity range ( 87 - 88 db's ). They can all suck down an easy 500+ wpc like it was nothing. Even at 900+ wpc passively bi-amped, the amps were crying out in pain while the speakers kept saying "feed me more". I was finally able to quench their thirst with 1200+ wpc feeding them.
I know that's not what you wanted to hear, but if you want to play at HIGH volume levels and / or not clip the amp on sustained dynamic peaks with speakers of that sensitivity level, that is what it will take. I found this out the hard ( and expensive ) way with a LOT of trial and error. The importancy of speaker efficiency has never been clearer to me than after going through that fiasco. Sean
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While i tend to crank things a lot harder than most people, I've got several sets of speakers in that same sensitivity range ( 87 - 88 db's ). They can all suck down an easy 500+ wpc like it was nothing. Even at 900+ wpc passively bi-amped, the amps were crying out in pain while the speakers kept saying "feed me more". I was finally able to quench their thirst with 1200+ wpc feeding them.
I know that's not what you wanted to hear, but if you want to play at HIGH volume levels and / or not clip the amp on sustained dynamic peaks with speakers of that sensitivity level, that is what it will take. I found this out the hard ( and expensive ) way with a LOT of trial and error. The importancy of speaker efficiency has never been clearer to me than after going through that fiasco. Sean
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