How many watts do you really need?

@roadcykler  the Gryphon amplifiers are high bias class  A/B amplifiers, they do not stay in class A up to 800 watts into 2ohm loads they slide into class A/B. You would need a standing bias current of over 14 amps to accomplish this, it would draw about 3400 watts from the wall plug.

I had a pair of Totem Mani ii’s 20 years ago and the best they sounded is when i had them paired up with 1000 watt McIntosh monoblock amps, sounded much better than pairing with the McIntosh 400 and 600 series amps or even the 200 watt Classe amp.

It’s more than just watts. Later on, i was using the Hegel H360 which had I think 250 watts and with my current speakers at the time sounded nice. Then I bought some larger speakers that should have sounded fine with 250 watts but the bass wasn’t what i liked. Bought a 250 watt separate amp and the speakers came to life. Now, this amp was 4x bigger than the Hegel and 3x heavier, but just sounds much better. I also used the top of the line Classe monoblocks which I would still have today if Classe wasn’t bouncing around being sold then being back online.

well, my JBLs are designed for a 300WPC amp, so thats what i use. ive used other amps, but they perform best, just as theyre made to, with my 400WPC and 300WPC amps.   i have other speakers that do great with 2 watts, a coupla pairs that are great with 50, 60W and theyre supposed to be. 

so i guess...you make the appropriate parings accoding to specs one way or another. 

headphonesty is a lot of button-pushing disinformation and junk. 

I remember, in the old days, you needed to change the setting of McIntosh Meters to even get the needle to move. That's when I learned we are mostly using 1 to 5 watts, I like reserve power for instantaneous peaks, and meters with 'maximum hold' feature can show you what they draw. 

Enough power to blast is bad for your ears, just good for peaks.

@jonwolfpell 

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. 

I wouldn't pay much attention to sensitivity. It only covers 300Hz - 3kHz. It doesn't tell you how much you need for bass, especially sub bass, and some speakers have an impedance below 6 ohm around 10kHz. It's not the be all end all answer as it is always used.

@elliottbnewcombjr 

I remember, in the old days, you needed to change the setting of McIntosh Meters to even get the needle to move.

Don't vintage speakers have poor frequency range? I can't imagine them to be as demanding as newer speakers with growing interest in bass.