Most people don’t realize that they probably use only 5 watts during normal listening levels. However, having the reserve power for transients is very important and adds greatly to the performance of your system, That being said, higher wattage amplifiers don’t always mean louder. In fact it take exponentially, more wattage to produce a noticeable increase in loudness. I’m sure there are more knowledgeable individuals in this post who can explain in more depth but my point is don’t expect a larger amplifier to be “louder” just because it has more wattage output. Quality over quantity..
Too much power?
I have a wonderful system with a great amplifier, and yet auditioned a more powerful version of the same amp. It indeed seemed to have more punch and drive, but at the expense of playing it a bit too loud. As my current system I rarely play over 70 db, since it’s perfect at low levels. I wonder other than bragging rights, what does more power get you? Since we aren’t here for PA style sound, is there a reasonable limit to how much you will benefit from higher power/ more expensive and? Especially since tire just using one watt most of the time?