What is your experience with amp power?

In general smaller speakers with extended bass, which tend to be the most popular and the least efficient, require high power high current SS amps to sing. Larger and more efficient speakers may be easier to drive but often lack of extended bass is the reason. So you have to know what you are dealing with in regards to speakers and how well they might perform in a particular room and make sure the amp is up to the task. That’s basically it in a nutshell. Bigger rooms are harder to conquer. Small ones not so much. It’s largely a matter of scale. Just avoid clipping or over driving a lesser speaker. The devil is always in the details.

Some speakers benefit from current and damping.   Not all watts are created equal.    Most good SS amps deliver a lot of current and have corresponding high damping. Not a fan of lesser built high power SS amps that deliver lots of watts but not much current with most speakers. 

Some speakers benefit from current and damping.   Not all watts are created equal.    Most good SS amps deliver a lot of current and have corresponding high damping. Not a fan of lesser built high power SS amps that deliver lots of watts but not much current.  

Most tube amps soft clip. Most SS amps hard clip. Many newer Class D amps also soft clip. Soft clipping gives the illusion of going louder overall (like “loudness wars”)  but the dynamic peaks are suppressed.

Clipping is public enemy #1 of good sound. Soft clipping is sonically more acceptable to most than hard clipping. More power when needed is the antidote to clipping. Them’s just the facts…..

Depends mainly on how far you are from speakers and how loud you want to go. Some speakers will benefit from higher damping factor in particular , others less so.

Having said that, more power in a line of amps will never hurt. Much like a bigger engine in a car. Making music can be a lot of work, especially with the lowest frequencies. If you skimp on those you can get away with a lot less power. Power needed for flat response increases exponentially as frequency gets lower. You may never miss having that truly extended low end response if you don’t but you are missing out on something if not.

I used to sell many popular lines of amplifiers to a lot of people. Nobody who ever compared ever preferred the sound of a lower power amp in the line to a higher one. But when comparing different designs from different vendors, that’s more apples and oranges and harder to predict what will be preferred.