My understanding of the relevant physics issues is the same as
yours. I have not seen an intelligent, educated human being put forth
any plausible theory why large speaker wire is justified. 14 gauge
lamp cord ought to be adequate.

100 honest, real, continuous, watts of sound are outrageously loud and
are apt to damage anyone's hearing.

I agree with this statement entirely! I used to work in a recording
studio and 'looked after' my hearing as it was a vital part of my job.
The number of times 'bands' would ask for the volume to be 'cranked up'
during mixing got beyond a joke. They didn't appreciate that your ears
very rapidly get tired when exposed to loud music and your critical
judgement gets shot to hell! Several hours of listening to the same
track over and over is wearing enough at the best of times without
having the volume 'pinning you to the wall'!

We used to check the 'mix' at various volumes (and through several
different speaker options) throughout the process but the majority of
the 'fine tuning' was carried out at a volume that could be sustained
for several hours. We also insisted on regular 'silence' breaks during
the sessions to give our ears time to 'relax'.


Note how many sound devices advertise "300 watts" of sound, and yet have
fuses that are to blow under much lower power consumption.


While they may advertise "300 watts" of sound the chances are that if
you cranked that amp up to full volume it would be distorted to hell!
However, having a 300 watt amp but only running it at sub-100 watts is
not a bad thing in terms of signal to noise ratios and quality of audio
output. The extra 'overhead' means that you are never getting close to
the distortion threshold when listening to it at 'normal' levels.


--
Larry Green