Why do you need so much power?

I’ve hit clipping on 93 dB/Watt Tannoys (Kensington SE) with 25 tube Watts / ch, though only on certain material at higher volumes. And that’s hard clipping; soft clipping sets in well before that, so more overhead than you think you need is often a good thing for maximum clarity and dynamics. I heard that difference as I moved up in power amps.

I’ve even hit hard clipping once on those same Tannoys with a more powerful 65 - 70 Watts/ch tube amp, though that was a bit by accident - an extremely high dynamic range Sheffield Labs (direct to disc) record of Firebird Suite caught me well off guard! I ended up with 250 Watts/ch Rogue Apollo tube monoblocks and it was truly wonderful, and never ever clipped, even in "whoops" moments.

Now I run 96dB Tannoys (Canterbury GR) with 200 Watts/ch tube monos (VAC 200iQ) and there is really no possible way I will ever clip those lol. It sounds absolutely wonderful.

Of course, if you’re listening to rock/pop with almost no dynamic range (nothing against it, I enjoy a lot of it!) then yeah that 93 dB and 25 tube Watts will run you out of the room and you will never even reach clipping before your ears melt off.

@smrex13
The Tannoys are really quite efficient; the 89, 91, 93, and 96dB models I’ve heard of theirs all seem true to their rating when compared to other brands. You’ll especially notice this if you have a tube preamp without a dead-quiet noise floor. I know that some other brands have more "liberal" with their ratings, or do the 4 ohms / 2 Watts "trick" to add 3dB to the visible spec. Or sacrifice LF extension to goose the efficiency.

@kijanki
The old "only sounds 2x louder" thing is very subjective, and there are 2 versions of it: +6dB (8 Watts to 32 Watts) and +10dB (8 Watts to 80). All these rules of thumb, including 1dB being the smallest "perceptible" unit, are targeted for non-audiophiles, non-critical listeners. When I get in the sweet spot of my system and start listening, even 1dB is quite significant and readily noticed (or missed). 3dB is a lot, 6dB is a LOT, and 10dB is a HELL OF A LOT. So yes, personally I do appreciate these differences quite a bit.