ha HA... "sometimes the only thing standing between me and a vociferous emotional outburst leading to unemployment is breathing deep and turning to look at the river peacefully flowing through my backyard" - this resonates more than you know. My office has large windows too. I have yet to complete my office so no system in it (yet).
I am sitting ~10 ft from the speakers. I feel like I haven't had to push them at all and they are plenty loud and room filling. So, I feel like there is plenty of headroom. What would more wattage provide for me? I definitely do not need them to get any louder.
Thanks.
Good question, it comes up a lot. Kef recommends, strangely, to buy an amp that has the ax power rating + 10%. For the R7, that'd be 275W at 8ohm. Now that's a blanket recommendation - they don't know if you're watching movies, listening to organ music, have sub(s), etc. I say strange because why don't they just recommend 275W in the first place...
At 10ft, I would guess 100W is enough for most music depending on how loud you listen. It will certainly be enough once you get a sub and crossover the R7. If you like action movies, it may struggle. As to whether that struggle will be audible to you is anyone's guess. More power is often the actual reason behind peoples subjective claims of "improved dynamics" rather than whatever mystical purity they may be imagining which is now flowing through their speaker cable when they upgrade. Simply put, more power provides more headroom for peaks in your content.
My comment re: the "Marantz tax" is simply around their business model. As consumer we now have quite a bit of information showing Marantz is objectively inferior to it's sister company Denon, even moreso to newer class D and GaN technology, when viewed $ for $. it may color the sound a bit (probably not), and that's OK if that's what you're into. But I think the whole "tuned by golden ears" thing is just marketing capitalizing on nostalgia. It would not be difficult to assemble objectively superior separates for 1/2 the price, or even no-fuss off the shelf for 2/3 of the price.
Again, If you like it and you're confident it meets your listening needs there's nothing wrong with it. Although I know I could buy far better, I still have a M6PRX that you'll have to pry from my cold dead hands. I have no explanation, I just really like it even though I suspect it's quite inferior compared to the newer "wire with gain" technology out there. No measurements available for me to compare but when the company offers only specs like "THD .007 at average listening.levels" you can be confident the bench tests aren't pretty. but, I already own it and am fully aware there's more important places to put my budget (room treatment/correction).
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