how much power

Magfan,
I'm with you, just didn't want to get into all the advantages of Magnepans and answer the OP's question as to why "he" "may" need more than 50 watts. If I listened to the Left Brain crowd, I would have never tried a Cary 805 (50/70 watt SET) on my Maggies. That would have been a loss.

No problemo. I used a Kenwood integrated for a while...with MG-1s. This was quite a while ago.

As to 150 watts and 45 amps? That's about 3.3 volts. Clearly something doesn't add up.
My panels are fused at 4 amps for mid/tweet. Figure 8 amps full tilt for the whole enchilada. Why would I need 45 amps? My Ice amps have some wacky spec like that which is IMO, nearly meaningless.

I would suggest that some scheme like this....linked, is a good place to start in any chat about amplifier REAL power into REAL loads.

http://www.audiograph.se/Downloads/PowerCube_12p_brochure_complete.pdf

'As to 150 watts and 45 amps? That's about 3.3 volts. Clearly something doesn't add up.
My panels are fused at 4 amps for mid/tweet. Figure 8 amps full tilt for the whole enchilada. Why would I need 45 amps?'

Well what does it all mean? Some very reputable companies always list this spec. Parasound and Harman Kardon come to mind. The bigger HK list 100 amps and the parasounds 60 amps. I have read some gurus that say amps are not even important. So I guess it's an audiophile thingy, i.e No answer. BTW, the link and the cube graphs etc.... are very similar to the method used to test amps in the Audio Critic. Better be careful. :)

Personally, I guess I'd fall on the 'amps is red herring' side of the fence.
Pass is the only amp manufacturer who lists VOLTS and watts. I also suspect his amps are nearly stable enough to either weld or charge batteries.
Audio Critic? I'll go have a look.
One thing to consider is Safe Operating Range of any semiconductor device. A power transistor, even with bigtime heat sinking can only take so much.
This is a wiki about SOR and explains it better than I can. To raise the stakes, multipe devices are paralleled.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_operating_area

As near as I can figger', discussions like these really end up being about power supply.....mentioned or not.

Magfan, Rok2id,
45 amps is peak current that has nothing to do with operating continuous collector voltage of amplifier.
Continuous current would probably be in the range of 1...2 amps.
What is necessary for amplifier to deliver the same power onto the 4Ohm load vs. 8Ohms is to double the current and not on peak or transient bases but on continous.
Not all amps are capable to weld but there are some.