How much power is to much power?

Jtnicolosi,

You listen to the two kinds of music that require the greatest power reserves - classical and rock. You need lots of power. Think about it, rock is typically performed with several thousand watts of power, huge speaker systems and full drum kits. The wall of sound and chest thumping beat is what gives rock music its power to move you, whether it is in your living room, a bar or a stadium. Classical music, especially full orchestral pieces, rely on 80+ musicians drawing strings, blowing on woodwinds and beating on kettle drums and cymbals. Crescendos in classical music require tremendous amounts of fast power to replicate the scale and speed of all those different instruments and energy operating in unison. Not only that, but multiple speaker drivers to move significant volumes of air don't hurt either.

The problem is a trade off between adding more components (capacitors, resistors, diodes, etc.) to increase power, and the value of simple circuits in terms of noise and distortion. Smaller scale and lower energy music like acoustic jazz and vocals requires less power to reproduce lifelike scale and transients, and the extra power capacity just adds unnecessary noise. I agree with some others here that an important issue for you is the need to reproduce low frequencies at a realistic scale. For the kinds of music you like, I think the sensitivity of your speakers is less important than the amount of low frequency energy present in the signals you are trying to reproduce, and the ability of your amplifier(s) to lord over the woofers in your speakers and move air.

140wpc versus 200 wpc is not really as critical as the current and dampening factor provided by the amplifier. For example, the Naim Nait 5i with 50 wpc channel provides as much or more control in practice than many 100+ wpc amps, because it seems to be able to deliver current quickly and efficiently to the speakers.

How much power is too much power? In your case, more than you need to reproduce the music of your choice, whether it is the Who or Mahler's 2nd, with convincing scale and drama. For classical and rock, I doubt you will find that point of diminishing returns below about 100 amps of current delivery and a dampening factor of about 500, regardless of the sensitivity of your speakers.

A million watts is probably too much.

For your current speakers 140 is far enough - same if you upgrade. Frankly if you need more SPL then get a bigger speaker (three way) rather than overdrive a small one - your little speaker will be mostly distorting when driven hard.

FWIW: If you are looking at really old amps then it may be worth having it checked out and possibly replacing the caps.

A million watts is probably too much.

A million isn't exactly a lot of power. This Crown give me a feeling of power! Power! Forgive me a cruel chuckle, heh, heh, heh, power

I have had two types of problems with excess power:

1. Too much gain for my speakers efficiency due to not being able to turn the preamp down enough (KEF speakers, CAT pre, Symphonic line amp). CAT's rather crude volume pot gradations of 3 db or so made one click too low and the next, too high. Also, if you use a TacT or some other digital volume control, a high powered amp into some speakers will have you throwing out bits of resolution when you turn it down, due to the digital nature of Pots.
(I know, I know, for all you TacT afficianadoes out there, TacT manipulates this in the software or something, but I don't need to hear about that here. Take it to the TacT forums. I'm making a point, not selling or defending TacT products.)

2. Many and esp, less expensive volume controls don't "track" the two channels well at lower settings, say below 10-11 o'clock or so. These controls need to be up higher in their range or you will have erratic channel balance.

That's why we call them "systems", each part is more or less interdependent on the other parts. All that said, I like big power sometimes (Soundlabs with Perreauxs at 850 per side, Genesis 501 with Pass 350, totalling 1200 watts per side) I don't mind power.

However, I'm using Lowthers at 105 db in the cabinet and 2 watt 45 tube amps, or even weirder, my First Watt f4, which has a -.5 db gain structure! That's perverse to my last 3 decades seeking power and gain, but lower power=fewer gain stages=cleaner power is a convincing argument when you've acturally heard it.

Nonetheless, you're looking in the big horsepower league. If that's what your system needs and responds to, then I agree: "one can't be too slim or too rich" and you can't have too much power, IF it is under control and properly applied.

Different horses/different courses.