If a unit has sufficient power to meet the needs of the program material at sane sound levels(as typical modern receivers selling for a few hundred dollars do), there's nothing else that can be accomplished.
I agree with you, at sane levels most modern recievers are practically faultless. It's those 'insane' times that I've refering to.
You know, like when you have 20 drunk friends over for a party and (insert song of choice here) comes on and one of your buddies screams, "dude that's my song, CRANK IT"!!! Not many low to mid grade recieves sound very pretty once you push them past the 90 - 95% mark. Not in my experience anyway.
Then there was my buddy Pat Trotter, a high school friend of mine I ran into in my mid 20's. He invited me over to his house to hang out and talk about old times and when I got there I saw and became interested in his stereo 'rack' system. It contained at least 3 separate Harmon Kardon pieces, I couldn't tell you what model or anything (I was still completely wet behind the ears about all this stuff at the time), all I can truely remember was the ubber cool little handels they had on either side. He may or may not have been using Harmon Kardon speakers, I really didn't notice, but the music he played sure sounded great. Then he said, "wanna see how loud these play"?
"Well of course, are you kidding... let her rip bro"!!! I unwittingly replied. A quick turn of the knob (and I don't rightly know if it was 50%, 75% or 100% to be honest) suddenly filled the room with terrorizingly loud music, we're talking complete insanity... but at the same time it was clear, undistorted, and totally composed. I seriously doubt he had a subwoofer, because I don't remember an onrush of bass. All I remember was throwing both hands over my ears .8 seconds into the experience because it was far too much to take. This was no critical listening experience, it was just a demonstration of sheer power!
So the question is, is something like that practical? Not really. Is it for everyone? Certainly not. Will it be used very often? I highly doubt it. But the same can be said about the 175 hp my motorcycle pumps out at the rear wheel. That kind of power pushing a 400 pound two wheeled vehicle down the road is absolutely insane! And, well... me likey.
