Speaker wattage question


I'm new here, so I hope I'm posting this in the appropriate forum.
I am running KEF LS50's with a Parasound Integrated amp. The amp is rated at 165 WPC @ 8 ohms. The speakers are rated for 25-100 watts (and are possibly lower than 8 ohms according to some sources).
If pushed, do I risk damaging a driver, or will I simply get clipping?
Any help appreciated and please pardon my ignorance on something I'm sure is common knowledge.
chrisg1000
I am running KEF LS50's with a Parasound Integrated amp. The amp is rated at 165 WPC @ 8 ohms. The speakers are rated for 25-100 watts (and are possibly lower than 8 ohms according to some sources).
If pushed, do I risk damaging a driver, or will I simply get clipping?
yes, if pushed, you risk damaging your tweeter (before you damage your woofer). The amp will not clip since it has 165W/ch & plenty of current drive (that's usually the case for Parasound amps). The speaker will start distorting indicating it's been over-driven &/or broken. 
I'm thinking that you are not going to use more than 10W/ch from your amp at usual listening levels. The transients will be much higher but for much shorter duration. SO, then, it becomes a question of reliability - in how much time will your LS50 fail when you keep pushing more than 100W into your LS50 repeatedly over a period of time? I don't have an answer for you other than a fuzzy "long time".
Don't get too enthusiastic with the volume knob & you should be fine, I believe.  
Any speaker has limits, and modern speakers generally are going to be way too loud for anyone nearby to enjoy before those limits are reached. Your 165 watt amp will be using far less than its max before the speaker seems to be screaming, and if you push a SS amp too far it can certainly damage the drivers from the distortion that shows up eventually. Kind of like driving a sports car…you know it might be fast, but a sharp corner at 120 might be less of a good idea. Clipping a 165 watt amp means you're drunk and attempting to get your dinner party guests to twerk or something, or you sat on your remote, but with your rig you should get some nice sound before any issues come up…with SS amps the good news is the distortion is at the end of the power limit and generally results in clean "head room" which is fine for all but the wimpiest drivers. I have a much older pair of KEFs (Q10s…ancient) that I've never driven hard enough to hurt 'em…luckily…they still work perfectly as deck speakers and have been subjected to SS slam frequently…within reason.
If pushed, do I risk damaging a driver, or will I simply get clipping?
In my experience, most speaker drivers will blow because of clipping.  Yes, you can send to much power (wattage/current/voltage) to a speaker and pop it, but normally clipping is the issue.

With your rig, it would be INCREDIBLY loud, way before you do damage and you would surely turn it down long before this happens.