Hi-fi amplification is not the same as with guitars. You want want your amps to be running in their lowest-distortion range, every time (or as close to that as possible given your SPL needs) -- whether tubes or SS. And you can still clearly hear the effects of tube rolling even when amps are perfectly well within their "clean" range.
Too much power doesn't cause problems unless you're careless and let a very high-power signal through to your speakers -- besides that scenario, it's generally safer to have more power, to avoid clipping (which can be problematic for tweeters). When it comes to protecting your gear, there's no silver bullet -- some care and education will be required by yourself, whether you choose tubes or SS, high power or low power.
I run 250 Watt tube amps on 96db/Watt. So I'm definitely on the "too much power" side, and it works extremely well; I love it. The system gain structure is a little suboptimal, but that's a (kinda) different issue.
Too much power doesn't cause problems unless you're careless and let a very high-power signal through to your speakers -- besides that scenario, it's generally safer to have more power, to avoid clipping (which can be problematic for tweeters). When it comes to protecting your gear, there's no silver bullet -- some care and education will be required by yourself, whether you choose tubes or SS, high power or low power.
I run 250 Watt tube amps on 96db/Watt. So I'm definitely on the "too much power" side, and it works extremely well; I love it. The system gain structure is a little suboptimal, but that's a (kinda) different issue.