Such hard decisions :D Anyone with some insight on Amp Selection?

well, just going by specs is a funny thing, since i am very for "empirical" data, however there was a huge different in the sound quality moving from the 130wpc receiver, to just using the receiver as a preamp and going with the gfa-5500, and i am not using multiple outboard amps, i am using one, went to gfa-5500, wanted to power the center channel so wanted a 3 channel to replace the gfa-5500 with a gfa-5503 or the B&k 4300, hence my dilemma, however i solved it by buying both. and i am not going just for watts (not sure where you are interpreting that from) and you say why have watts that are unusable, why are they unusable watts? to be honest, i was asking a simple question as to which amp was better in opinion, not to tell me to replace my entire setup and go with soemthing you would go with lol. I have needs that you are not considering, this is my main living room that is also for movies, i dont want a separate audio rig, literally just deciding on 2 different amps that i saw available that have 3 channels (front cneter right). not sure how we went down this rabbit hole of random suggestions. and you can run your speakers at 35wpc awesome, we probably have different listening habbits, and different room sizes, this room im putting at is 12,000 cubic feet, so more watts is nice, and i like to listen to it loud, and sometimes outside with 30 people over bbqing etc, im sure headphones would suffice at 1/4 watt for some people :)

why have watts that are unusable, why are they unusable watts?

Because, if the first watt isn’t any good, why would you want 200 more of them?

The reality is even when listening quite loud the vast majority of the time you’re using only a very few watts- and only fractions of a watt when its not really loud. Because if you think about it, a 90dB speaker plays pretty loud with 1 just watt (90dB), real loud with 10 (100 dB), and crazy loud with 100 (110dB). Only 100 watts, and so loud its hearing damage.

And yeah, yeah I know: distance. Whatever. Its still loud.

The above by the way is in impotent solid state watts. In manly tube watt terms 30 watts is plenty. In multichannel home theater terms no amount of watts is enough to sound as good as 30 quality tube watts. Its kind of like, you can have a whole army of Ben Stillers, its never gonna amount to one Arnold. Or to misquote another famous actor: All your watt are unusable to us.

you say no amount of A/V watts is enough, yet you said i'd be fine with the watts it provided? and im not sure exactly where the first watt isnt any good is coming from, i'd agree, but not sure if that's really relevant as i haven't stated it sounded bad or said i thought they werent good at any level of volume, just kinda lost in this conversation now :D man we are so sideways off topic its insane hahaha

Buying both to audition was the best option, not always feasible to do but always the best way to know as you discovered.  

Having sold both brands back in the late 80s into the early 90s they both fell into roughly the same camp.  Each brand having a few winners in their line-up and some honest to goodness stinkers.  It is interesting and curious in regards to your sound results from the B&K.  If you find something off kilter in your bench testing it would be interesting to hear back.  

@bryhifi yeah i will, i think im going to hook it up today, but i dont think an amp should sound THAT different :) ill definitely get back, loving the adcom in the meantime