What I do know is that I had once a Luxman R107 receiver. Maybe 55 watts a channel and (back in the day, with my Cerwin vega D9 speakers) the system sounded extradorinarilly good (for the price). I had to investigate further. What I found out was the Luxman had 4db of dynamic headroom and my prior rig only 2dbs (same watts and, in those days, THD (remember THD?). Many of my engineer friends agreed that was the reason for the Luxmans great sound. Me? I just know it sounded better.
