"Wylie Williams" wrote in message
news:UDkYa.56394$Oz4.14859@rwcrnsc54
"Arny Krueger" wrote
(1) First one disabuses oneself of the idea that there are *magic*
power amps, IOW one needs to unlearn the idea that there is some
indefinable something that makes one magic power amp sound a lot
better than lesser amps that look similar on paper. The ultimate sin
is not failing to buy that one
good-sounding power amp in the whole universe.

(2) Then one realizes that ultimate sin is instead, running out of
power.

(3) Sometimes one finds that having a power amp that is so powerful
that makes destroying speakers too easy can be a bad thing.

My experience with the general public was that low power amps
operated into distortion/clipping are responsible for the vast
majority of speaker destruction.

IME, nothing fries speakers like a fool and a really powerful amp. I think
that the real problem is that people listen while drinking and partying and
just get carried away.

In these later days, just about every stereo receiver puts out 80-100 wpc,
which is hard for me to characterize as being low-powered.

Is this applicable to high end systems? Not in my experience, as
audiophiles are usually too particular to operate their systems this
way. And they have enough power to more or less satisfy their SPL
desires without damaging speakers. But then I ran a mostly mid fi
store, so maybe others with more audiophile experience will
contradict this.

IME speakers have a built-in protection mechanism if they get really loud
before they become damaged.