Newbie question

C’mon guys. It’s a "newbie question. Cut him some slack. There was some good entertainment in the remarks though, it’s only funny to the initiated.

@roycerichards

There is some good info. IMO, buying vintage is only for those with the technical skills to revive it and keep it going. It was mostly good in it’s day but wore out today. Don’t get caught up in watts. I’ve had 35-350 watt amplifiers. The best were the lower wattage. It comes down to design and parts. Lower watts need higher efficiency speakers than the high power ...... 90db+. This is part of what Eric means when he said, " Matching an amp to your speaker ". Don’t know what your system consists of now or what your budget is, but an integrated amp is your best bet IMO. Hope this helps. BTW, welcome aboard.

1.  Why the need for soooo much watts?

2.  Who manufacture a 2500 watt amplifier?  Bridged?  Per side! 

3.  True.  It does not matter how much power your "vintage receiver" has.  You should not be connecting it's speaker outputs to the inputs of this monster amplifier.  Use the PreOut -  Power In loop connections.  These bypasses the power amp section of the receiver.  McIntosh has tuner preamp units.

4.  Howeeeever.  I have worked on Car Amplifiers of huge wattage that had speaker INPUTS on it.  Is this is the way you're going? Ummm, 2x's.  Now the power amplifier in this receiver is Very Important.  You will be amplifying, big time, any and all distortions coming out of the receiver.  That goes for it's front end too.  So don't vintage or cheap out totally on this receiver. 
The second ummm is,  My mother told me "If I don't have something good to write, keep my fingers shut". 

I appreciate everyone’s advice and knowledge. I should have added that I have 4 cerwin Vega mtx400 15” 3-way floor speakers rated for 400W max. I personally prefer to listen to my music at very loud volume. 

You would be amazed how loud just one watt can be. 
https://youtu.be/vaiEDYB5c9M

of course the 2500 wpc was a theoretical exaggeration,

It is not ADDITIVE. You would skip the amplifier part of the receiver,
remove the power tubes, connect no speakers to the receiver.

Only use the preamp section (IF the receiver has a way to do that), connect the preamp part of the receiver to your separate more powerful amplifier, i.e. 250 wpc.

Therefore, the answer to your question: You are correct: the receiver’s power rating makes no difference.

HOWEVER, as someone else pointed out, you may be quite surprised by how good a 30-35 wpc tube receiver sounds and how well it drives your speakers. 400 wpc speakers: Cerwin Vega’s were engineered to not burn out until you got over 400 wpc, they in no way need 400 wpc to get loud.

There was a LOT of competition in that 30-35 wpc range, engineers of each company going for the best, similar to the end of TT era 1984 when each company’s engineers tried to out-perform the others. That is why Vintage Receivers and TT’s are so desireable.

Most Vintage receivers have a tape recorder LOOP (out to tape, back in from tape), some have specific preamp out jacks, my Fisher 500c also has an optional reverb loop (jumpers on the deck can be removed) to use a reverb unit, OR ANY outboard device, i.e. a modern remote controlled device (like my Chase RLC-1 remote line controller). ANY Tape Loop can be used for ANY signal controlling device, or Preamp Out to processor, then back in via aux, any input.

The advantage:

ASSUMING your vintage receiver is in good shape, noise free, ...

Is that you retain all the ’old school’ features: bass and treble tone controls; balance; loudness; rumble filters; phase reverse; and some have a very useful mode switch that offers: stereo reverse; mono; l+r to L only .....

And receivers had TUNERS, FM, some AM and FM, most Stereo, very old ones Mono.

Happily, most have PHONO built in, many have two phono, some, like my mx100z has 3 phono in: 1 for old ceramic high strength signals, 2 for MM signals. Built-In MC phono very rare, perhaps none?

................................

PS

STOP LISTENING VERY LOUD! You will definitely regret it later because you will be damaging your hearing.