Gena and Others:
This has been a most interesting and stimulating thread and has stimulated me to do some "deep" thinking!!
Let me try to make a case for requiring more than 100 Watts of Peak Power. This may answer, at least in part, why some folks report better sounding music with the higher power amps.
Lets use some of Gina's data (and maybe I will take a little liberty with an "assumption" or two).
1. 5 Watts for 85 dB SPL (some board members report listening at 90 -100 dB SPL)
2. Factor of 24 between Peak and Average (.5 W average versus 12 W peak)
3. Speaker impedance is not fixed across the spectrum (may dip from 8 ohms to 4 ohms or lower)
Ok, lets take some of you folks who like to listen at 85 dB SPL, no louder. That's 5 watts. Multiply that by 24 is 120 watts (consider just a single channel). Lets "assume" that the impedance dips, at the same time to 4 ohms, then we have 240 W of peak power.
Now, if you want to listen at 95 dB SPL, that equates to 2400 Watts of peak power.
I don't know how realistic this hypothetical case is, but it does demonstrate that you may need much, much more than 100 W of peak power to accurately reproduce your music at moderate to loud listening levels.
I think that this analysis would apply to fronts and center channels. Rears and surrounds probably an order of magnitude or two less.
Alright, what say the tribe?
