Panny: While i basically agree with your statement pertaining to "quality over quantity", there are many commone reasons why that simply doesn't work.
First: If you are driving the amp quite hard on a regular basis, most amps will tend to "fall apart" sonically. Delicacy, fluidity, detail, separation of instruments and notes, etc... all tend to get lost in the shuffle.
Second: If the amp is being pushed hard enough to be driven into clipping, sound will surely suffer. This is not to mention that damage to both the amp and speakers could result.
Third: Many low powered amps of very high quality are biased quite richly i.e. they stay in Class A longer than a bigger amp that switches into Class B sooner. This will generate quite a bit of heat. Judging from what i've seen in most installations, the lack of air-flow around such amps is an invitation to pre-mature failure and / or increased trips to the repair shop.
As such, you have to figure all the factors into the equation. As a general rule, i would prefer a richly biased high power amp to achieve both the low level sonics and maintain the dynamic headroom that i find necessary to keep things sounding "clean and cohesive".
Carlsaff: If you like the sound of your modified Hafler, try looking into a modified DH-500 or, probably more appropriately, an Acoustat TNT 200. Sean
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