Experiences moving from high-power to lower-power system

Interesting post. Can't help you because i have no experience with low-power systems and only experience with one high power system (250w/c). But I have an add-on question: You mentioned space/size constraints. What other reason would there be for going from a high to a low power system?

Interesting question.  My main system has a high power SS "tube like" amp Conrad Johnson MF 2300A with Magneplanar 1.7's.  It sounds wonderful.  But I started wondering what a single ended tube amp would sound like. Obviously it would take a lot of $$$ to drive Maggies in a large room with a single ended tube amp so,   being rather short changed in the mullah department I bought a ChiFi  single ended pentode amp for the princely sum of $300 to drive a set of Paradigm Atoms in near field listening in my office setup.
Al I can say is it's been an amazing revelation.  The level of "presence" for lack of a better term is just amazing to me.  I find I'm spending a lot of time in my office and reluctant to turn the system off and go listen to my "real" one.  Maybe it'll wear off, I've only had it for a month - we'll see.
My office system was previously driven by a Creek 4330 MK II and occasionally a Marantz 1060 for vintage flavoring.

Hi n80,

Thank you for your question. This was spurred by listening to a friend's setup in a comparable-sized room, using an old Sansui integrated and Polk 5s. What stood out is how good it sounded at low volumes. The sound stage was smaller, but almost better because of it. Everything sounded more integrated, like music should be. It's a bit like that old notion of where you want to be sitting in the concert hall, up close so that each instrument is distinct in space, or further back where everything is blended into a harmonious whole. In the end, the setup was perfect for the room. To answer your question, I think it's in large part about fitting the system to the room, but perhaps there are other benefits of a lower-power system: smaller # of parts, higher-quality of said parts for same price, leading perhaps to better resolution at the volume they were designed to be played at, or, a narrower soundstage that may sound better in a smaller room. I don't really know. Now my friend's system in particular was not more resolving than mine, but I think my point is that his stereo is almost perfectly adapted to its environment. The interesting thing is that the market for low-power system is really bimodal: either low-cost products meant for the casual consumer or astronomical speciality combinations of efficient speakers and low-power amps. 

One thing I can tell you is that you don't have to sacrifice anything by getting more efficient and easier to drive speakers! I've yet to hear anything with more resolution and my speakers go down flat to 20Hz. The are 98 db, so I don't need a lot of power. I usually run them with 60 watt tube amps, which allow me nearly unlimited volume levels. I am very used to going over to friend's houses and hearing systems with 800 watts and realizing that by comparison, their systems are smaller and less capable because they lack the dynamic range and resolution.
That old adage about smaller amps sounding better may apply;  certainly if you are careful you won't miss the more powerful/less able amplifiers! The trick is the speaker...