That "tube sound" and power ratings

"...So won't a high wattage tube amp have less of the special tube sound "tubies" like at their preferred listening volume?"

Probably... A lot of what people like is the compression and fatness that occurs when an underpowered tube amp is over driven. You'll have to try some combinations out, with your speakers, music and listening levels... The amount or lack of distortion that's pleasing to your ears, is up to you...

Cool to hear that you're checking out different gear - have fun listening. Some lower powered amps can bring some magic- but one limiting factor could be with music that is more dynamic. Sometimes too much compression can set in and instead of enhancing the sound, the amp will act more as a limiter...

From my experience I've seen a lot of tube amp owners who like distortion. Not SET guys with highly sensitive speakers, but the 10-20 Watt tube amp owners who mate their amp with a speaker rated much below 90dB.

A good friend of mine is a recording engineer and he always says "people love distortion"... In the studio throw a tube compressor on - and ''fatten" up the sound - warm things up. It's the same effect when someone uses a 10 Watt tube amp on a pair of speakers that are rated 25 Watts minimum. I see guys do it all the time - they're fully aware of the speaker's specs, and despite the manufacturer's advice to use more power they do it anyway. It's a seductive sound - but the product of distortion.

"That's not the same thing. In the studio, what you're talking about above is signal processing. Its part of the creative process. Playback gear's job is completely different. The idea behind that is to reproduce the original event as accurately as possible. Making your amp distort on playback goes in the opposite direction of that goal. You don't want you home audio system to distort because you want to reproduce whatever is on the recording as best you can. Even if its distortion. "

That's definitely true that in the studio it's processing the signal - but at home, tube amps are often doing the same thing. It is a form of distortion. Not all tube based systems distort this way, but I do see lots of listeners using underpowered amps for the speakers they have.

Tubes are a great way to emotionally get close to the music - I think of tubes as a way to create an illusion that performers are in the room with you - but I never think of this as accurate or neutral - but it can be very involving...

Good question, Hazyj...