More power or better quality power?

Bob_reynolds, in my opinion, a quality watt represents power that contains a highly desirable audio signal & is pleasing to the ear as opposed to mediocre sound.

Bob,

I would define a quality watt as follows. An amps ability to reproduce music accuratly without clipping or distorting. This may seem easy but without a quality power supply and a good supply of reserve power it is virtuatly impossible. Lets take a guitar if you are listening to music at say 5 watts the initial pluck of the guitar string may require 50 watts peak to peak to be acuratly reproduced. As the note decays of course the signal or power required reduces. It is the initial pluck that draws on the current reserves of the power supply.

Again a transistor or valve must not reach saturation during this initial pluck. There by clipping or distorting the signal. A transistor by its very nature will clip the signal. A valve will distort the signal. It is my understanding that some manufactures have what is called soft clipping circuits for their SS amps, so they act more like a valve amp at higher volumes. Valves and transistors have a maximum voltage rating at which point they will clip or distort. It is up to the designer to decide on what those ratings need to be to acuratly reproduce peaks in the music not just the max power of the amp.

A quality watt has nothing to do with the ability of the amp to play at ear splitting volumes. But as I said previously the ability to accuratly reproduce the music being fed to it at reasonable volumes. If you listen at ear splitting levels the only way to reproduce the music accuratly is with massive amounts of powerr and current reserves.

Hope I was clearer than mud.

P.S. My normal listening level is between 9 and 10 o'clock.

So, the problem remains: Is it wiser to invest in a new amp or integrated? Or is my choice of speakers to blame? Also, would using the NAD as a linestage be effective to drive a new power amp?

Bob, you should maybe just get out and listen to a bunch of gear; it would probably help you to understand what people are talking about when they say things like different amplifiers sound substantially different. You might become less set in your theoretical opinion that everything sounds the same.