David, no "headbanger" would ever be satisfied with a 30 wpc amp ( regardless of make, model or designer ) and 92 dB speakers. Either the amp would be smoked from overdrive or the tweeters and mids would be cooked from clipping. As to "who's gonna listen to it that loud", you might be surprised. I have locals that light power transformers on fire, blow the piss out of speakers on a regular basis, etc... Obviously, some people DO listen to music "LOUD" and i don't mean "Audiogon loud". I'm talking POUNDINGLY loud and they still want it crystal clear.
If it all boiled down to "bragging rights", you would need someone that knew what you were talking about to brag to. Since the general population all think that Bose is good and flea market car stereos have a "real" multiple thousand watt capacity, we'd be wasting our time and money.
Like anything else, people invest their time and money seeking the results that will make them happy. Since playing at high volume with good clarity and control typically takes a lot of driver surface area and power, that is what they spend their money on. I know what i want and am willing to pay for it. I'm sure that others with complex systems with high wpc ratings feel the same way.
As to why i have a lot of power, most of the speakers that i prefer to listen to are a combination of low impedances, low sensitivity and have a lot of driver surface area. In this respect, Edle is right. It does make for a tough climb up-hill but those are MY preferences and i have to deal with them. This takes a LOT of muscle to keep things under control and still not sound like something is running on the ragged edge. I also prefer to let amps coast as they typically sound less congested and more refined that way. Headroom in a system means not only the ability to easily reproduce peaks and maintain dynamic range, it means "lack of strain". This way, you can achieve "cranking" volume levels without really "cranking" the amp hard. Even if you are drawing 300 - 800 watts on long duration peaks, having 1000+ wpc on hand simply means that you're still coasting.
While this may not be nearly as critical on classical, jazz, blues, etc... due to the very high peak to average ratio, rock and metal require much higher levels of average power to sustain "concert levels" and keep it clean.
While this is not meant towards anyone in specific, until you've heard and experienced ( and especially assembled ) a system that can literally raise the roof, do it with the utmost in clarity and control and do it on a continual basis reliably, you have NO idea what you're missing or what it takes. This can't be done with a couple hundred watts per channel and average efficiency speakers. It takes MEGA watts and a lot of surface area ( drivers ) which results in low impedances which means you have to have even more power capacity. Achieving the "ultimate" becomes a vicious circle rather quickly.
That is, unless you're using very high efficiency horns and that sound suits your tastes. Even with 104 db horns, i have driven 300+ wpc amps into clipping. Impressive to anyone ? No. Trying to achieve what i personally want out of a system ? Yes. Offensive to some ? Possibly ( neighbors especially ). Not quite as offensive as talking about comparing the size of ones' "johnson" though.
All i can say is that some of you need to wake up and smell the coffee. Once you do that, you'll realize that there are different brands, types and preferences for "coffee". Even with all of the different variables involved in just that, some people like to "flavour" theirs even beyond having a custom blend. Audio is no different and there is no "right" or "wrong". Just what makes YOU happy as an individual. Sean
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