Just curious people, What kind of rooms are you big watt guys set up in?
For a small home I've never had the need for over 50 wpc. It gets painful at halfway.
Really not a big room at all - maybe 2000 cubic feet? I'm probably only pushing 10 continuous Watts at the most, but with well-recorded material that translates to 100 Watts peak, maybe more; my peak meters are showing 100-150 Watts when I'm playing very dynamic material at the highest comfortable levels (a touch over 90 dBa) and my amps are measured at 200+. It's true, as mentioned earlier, that a lot of studios don't allow much headroom in their recordings, but still many of them do and I'm not a fan of clipping, even when it isn't blatantly audible. There's a lot of anecdotal evidence that clipping leads to increased listening fatigue in the long term. Additionally, when you have your system EQed so that it's pretty flat, you will find yourself playing it noticeably louder; the annoying peaks which tell you how "loud" it is aren't there any more, and you tend to increase the volume until it "feels" loud. This takes more power as well - and can lead to surprisingly high SPLs if you don't monitor them.
As long as you don't do stupid things with the program sources and your amps are properly fused / protected against speaker damage, there is really no such thing as "too much" clean power. Unless you only listen to Muzak in the workshop - and then it's really only wasted, not excessive.
I just upgraded my main system to monoblocked (BTL mode) Luxman M-02s. 300-320 watts RMS per channel at 8 ohms - depending on which published numbers you look at. A lot more in dynamic power and at 5 ohms, where my BA Lynnfields are rated.
The Volt+D dual mono. With a 24v psu it's said to reach 60 watts x 2 but that may be a stretch. I use a 19v or a 12v and IMO this amp is the best implementation of the TPA311* so far.
Two small systems.Allo D+ with FX buffer[no tone controls] and another D+ with FX buffer and tone controls.
Totally absorbing both,a delight to use every day.Not much power[i use sensitive Tannoy DCs]but the resolution is immediately captivating.
I have more powerful kit,but ive been in love with these little rigs since i put them together.
Stromberg Carlsen "stereo 24". 17 watts. Pushing kornwalls. I can rock this place with 17.
My big stereo is a David Berning ZH270 with the Berning TF-10 pre. It's only 70. Pushing a set of speakerLab Khorn clones. To date I've had the music dial to onLy 2. Blows my stereo,room apart.