Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners What components for an M3 stereo system?

About the minimum rating thing:

That 1 watt rating is done with a test tone with steady amplitude. Music is very dynamic and uses a much wider frequency range. I can say with high confidence that your average wattage use is not likely to exceed 5 watts, but brief loud spikes in music -- like cannons in the 1812 Overture, to take an extreme example -- will use a lot more for fractions of a second. If your amp can't supply adequate wattage for these spikes in the signal, clipping may occur and that's when speakers can be damaged.

The wattage needs of the M3s in a small room are not that high, even taking demanding peaks into account, unless you like the volume up really high all the time.