30 to 50 watts seems to be all I desire

I haven't had more than 17 watts here in 15 years with no problems and great sound.

My minimum is 60 solid watts per channel. That will work at my listening levels, less with more efficient speakers. I only need more when I'm trying to impress someone, not for normal listening. 

Just out of curiosity, did you check to see if there was an impedance mismatch between your amp and preamp? I had a similar problem with an Audible Illusions preamp going into an Ayre V3. I could not get past 9 o'clock on the preamp without blowing myself out of the room. It was because the V3 had a 10K input impedance which was not high enough to work with most tube preamps and not because the V3 had too much power.

If you have already looked into this ignore me but my experience with Maggie's (2.7's only many years ago) is that they like lots of power to play well. Good Luck!

@joey54 You getting too high of a volume, past 9 o’clock, has nothing to do with an impedance mismatch. It is the high gain on your preamp combined with the gain of your amplifier. The impedance mismatch may cause a roll off on the bass from your speakers.

A couple of comments. First, the position of the volume control on the preamp doesn’t tell you how much power is being used by the speakers. One is at the mercy of the recording volume, the output of the source/DAC/preamp, plus the input sensitivity of the amp and the efficiency of the speakers. I’ve seen systems where having the volume knob at 4 or 5 o’ clock gives a modest volume and other setups where 9 or 10 o’clock is overly loud and distorted.

Also, playback volume and power needed in watts have a logarithmic relationship. A 3 dB increase in volume requires double the power. Twice as loud requires ten times the power.

Hence, one of the critical issues revolves around an individual’s max preferred listening level. Headbangers with inefficient speakers in a large room need a LOT of power. Others, like me, rarely break the mid-80s in terms of dBs.

Like the OP, I found that I simply don’t need a lot of power. My class A Schiit Aegir (40 w/ch at 4 ohms) gives me way more volume that I ever need. Of course, having a separately powered subwoofer takes a load off that amp and the main speakers.

The key is to experiment with what it takes to make YOU happy.