Does the amplifier or speaker wattage rating need to be higher or do they need to be the same?
Peak, Continuous, Prog, and Ect?
I get you
I have a 1w, a 3w, and a 5w amp
Speaker wattage means nothing. Chances are, you can blow out the speakers with 15W of (continuous) power. But there’s 10 different ways to rate power so that sentence means nothing.
The only metric worth reading is the sensitivity. Under 87db/1m/1W, you should consider a bigger amp. Of course brands like Klipsch rate their speakers like children and lie on the specs. Fortunately, Klipsch speakers are usually easy to power and sound bright (which helps with low volumes).
I don’t have biases to any brand. But haven’t Klipsch and others also been known to greatly exaggerate their sensitivity ratings?
Klipsch especially. I don’t know about other brands. Amplifiers have far more exaggerated specs TBH.
Kilpsch uses in room efficiency instead of anechoic sensitivity like the majority of the industry. This makes their numbers bigger as it assumes a certain level of reflective gain. Just take 6db off most of their specs and you will get close to their anechoic sensitivity. It is a real number, just not one others use so its highly misleading when comparison shopping.