82 Cornwalls

What is your reason for wanting to use one?

Many, many studios use other brands for playback. 😉

Jekyll and Hyde is the best way I can describe La Scala bass.

A lot of people just call most everything synergy. I think most of the time (80 - 90% just to throw a guesstimate out) if you know what to look for and can find comprehensive measurements, like Stereophile does, what works together and what doesn't can be explained, but it takes time, lots of research/investigation, and experimentation with different kit/trying things together to get a better understanding. Say you have x amount of money to spend on an amplifier and you find 2 at your price, a 50 watt amplifier and a 100 watt amplifier. Which one do you buy? The 100 watt one of course because more power is always better. What if the 100 watt amplifier was made for spec games and barely meets its specs on a test bench using 8 ohm resistors and the 50 watt amplifier was built for real world conditions by guys that know speakers aren't just an 8 ohm resistor and it can drive difficult loads without breaking a sweat?

I don't think (that low of) distortion is the answer since some of the amplifiers that people like with their speakers are higher than the Adcom at 1 watt.

And if you don't have what you need the speakers will tell you, if they are not complaining you are probably* fine. As mentioned above solid state running out of steam is (usually) easier to hear. Low power class A solid state is probably more like tubes in this regard. *depends on the listener and his listening skills

Your numbers are off if using "twice as loud". 1W to 2W is a 3 dB increase and 2W to 4W, 4 to 8, 8 to 16, and so on 3 dBs each time you double a noticeable difference. So if actually using 1W AVERAGE I would want 8W - 16W for 9 - 12 dBs above average (after a year or two I would need 500W minimum to compensate for hearing loss). 1W to 10W to 100W to 1,000W is actually what it takes to be twice as loud (10 dBs). These numbers show how ridiculous it can get chasing wattage. Didn't someone say something about needing a good 5W amplifier or is that just one of those stories? Of course today a good 5W amplifier can be 20W or 50W or 100W or........

If the amplifier gets the job done with a little to spare and sounds better to the user..... I use less than 1/10 of a watt average with CW 1s in the living room and less than 1/2 of a watt in my more nearfield system in my spare bedroom with 90 dB speakers. Yes I have heard music played at high levels on a great system and like a couple of things about it (not for long though), but overall I enjoy music so much more at lower levels.

Unused power is just that, unused, no magic pixie dust in it. I can say without hesitation 8 watts is plenty of power for me and clipping is not a problem. Much more power has been tried and found not to be needed at my less than live concert listening levels. More power to you if that's your desire, but I'm not going to tell someone else they need more power and that it's going to transform their system. If they are happy with what they have and hear no signs of clipping all is good, no sense in losing sleep. Many have gone down in quantity and up in quality and experienced worthwhile improvements.

"MAXIMUM of 116 dB continuous" Me: "I use these when listening to music." Someone smarter than me: "Why don't you just turn it down?......a lot" Me: "I never thought of that."

Sounds like the OP is only going 40 and at that speed no difference. What if you had a V24 doing 80, is that better than a V12?

The real problem I see is the difficulty designing for both modes since finer tuning is different for triode and ultralinear, it takes more than just a simple switch between the tube and OPTs. FWIW I had a Line Magnetic LM216IA that I preferred in triode. At my listening levels in my system there was no difference between 22 watts and 38.

This has not been my experience with amplifiers that can switch between triode and ultralinear or pentode. Perhaps you mean gain?

How does your Marantz and Aiyima compare to the ACA and Fisher?

Yes when AS came into existence. 😉 Before Novak and later Thiele and Small knowing a box could be used as resonator didn't automatically mean good sound. Open baffle/panel speakers have existed for a very long time, probably all the way back to 1924? and the first moving coil loudspeaker.