Senior Chef,
I hope you do get a positive response from their customer service. Do you know the sensitivity of the speakers that you're using?
The sensitivity of speakers means the higher the number the less power required to drive them to get a loudness at a specified distance. A speaker with 94 dB can produce more sound than a speaker with 87dB from the same amp. A lot of people don't realize that if you have a 100w amp you may only drawing 10w most of the time. Enthusiasts enjoy this stuff, people who just want to turn it on and enjoy their music don't really care-- as with most hobbies. Point is that manufacturer's today are fairly "creative" with measurements and in fact you may not even need the amount of power you think.
The sound system I use it my kitchen is pretty inexpensive and works for my needs. I have a narrow long kitchen so I have two sets of speakers, one on each end with individual volume controls, ie, cheap class D amplifiers. Those are the small 6x6x1 boxes and when I bought them a couple of years ago one they were around $30 ea on sale for Xmas. LIke everything the price on things like this is about doubled. The speakers were about $80/ pair I got them as discontinued models when the line changed over. A current version of these runs about $150/pr.
The source is a tablet that I use to listen to internet radio from the individual station's website. This is done via wires that are split from the tablet to each amp. The specs for the speakers are 8 Ohm, 20w-100w power handling, and a sensitivity of 89dB. The kitchen is about 12'x 20' with 8' ceilings. I can get the volume loud enough without audible distortion on the speakers that it is very uncomfortable and that's when I stop. Meets my needs for a kitchen radio. Is it the same experience I get with my main system?-no, but it's perfectly satisfying for the purpose.
