How many watts do you really need?

Wasn't it Nelson Pass that said the first watt is the most important?

Power requirements depends on the sensitivity of your loudspeakers, the size of the room, type of music ( to a degree) & most importantly how loud you enjoy your music. If you have a lower sensitivity speaker, maybe 85 db/watt/meter or lower & like to listen loudly to music w/ lots of bass in a big room,  you could easily use a several hundred watts on peaks. 

@glennewdick 

I've recently looked inside their top amp, I believe over $300k and was shocked at the build quality or lack of it for the price. 

Very interesting...genuinely curious why you'd be looking under the hood of one? The case work is beautiful. Nothing I lust after but I do love the nod to Jules Verne.

But the construction inside and out should be SOTA.

All of them…..

Your room size ,then speaker ohm, efficiency count most

if your speakers are even 88 db but dip down into the 2 ohm range then you need a very high current amplifier , my Alluxity- Vitus integrated doubles down from 200- 800 watts per channel ,which is very important to have a stable load under all circumstances , this is why speaker specs can be very deceiving .