All great advice. An important aspect of matching amps and speakers is synergy. The watts alone won’t tell the full story on how they’ll pair together. Another poster brought up Horse Power under the hood which is a good comparison, it’s not just HP though, it’s Torque, it’s how a car is geared and various other factors, it’s when the engine in a car has synergy with the rest of the car that true magic happens. Same with speakers and amps. Research what mates well with your speakers, Tube or SS, do they need headroom to really shine? Are the speakers on the brighter side? Pairing Tubes or Class or SS amps known for warmth like Macs, Pass, Krell, Parasound, Cod to name a few. Your speakers will likely do very well with amps that have some headroom, provide stability. If you like Mac’s, a great place to start with their power / autoformer technology. Good Luck, enjoy the journey!
Too powerful of an amp!?
Hello Audiogon fellows - I have a pair of 805 D4's and the recommended amps for this speaker are required to be rated between 50W-120W (as per spec sheet). I was eyeing some McIntosh amps as upgrade to my existing amp, and the only one that falls under this range is a MA5300 or MA252, they are the only ones that are rated 100W per channel for 8 ohm speakers (and I don't fancy/want those amps).
Can I safely go above recommended threshold for my B&W's? up to 3---400W per channel?