I used to run one of my hybrid horn/dynamic systems on 8 Watts...but have also run it on 1.5 Watt amps as well. Currently, I've got the speakers in a tri-amp set-up, but for reasons other than maximum spl. (I've also got a 20Hz hornsub, but I haven't got the room to set it up in the basement. When the time comes...I'm going to have to go with a line array of infinite baffle woofers.

Altec certainly made some nice stuff, back in the day. They did have a certain "Altec sound" to them...but they also had attributes that very few speakers today could equal. The few times I could get my hands on some old Altecs, Jbl's, EV's, TAD's, I feel honored. But of course...the person getting rid of them just want them large things out of the house!

Watts are certainly relative to the situation...especially when most modern drivers aren't able to produce clean undistorted sound at higher volume. (read with warning that care should always be used when at higher volumes) It's amazing how quiet high volumes can be when you have low distortion drivers that are capable of playing at high spl. *5db may be unbearable on one speaker system while another system may not be producing excessive distortion until over 100db.

Because I've got ALOT of landscaping yet to do...I haven't even begun to look into music options for outside. But I'm thinking a system based either on a wireless music server (like a squeezebox) or ipod may serve me the best. But who knows??? that will be some time away

dan