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"40% on the dial"

You do realize that the position of the volume control has absolutely nothing to do with the maximum power output of your amp? It is the same as the speedometer on a car---I can put a speedometer with 240 mph scale on a VW beetle but that doesn't mean the car can go that fast.

The volume control attenuates the input signal level to give the listening level you want. It's actual position depends on the signal output of your input source, the gain in the your amplifier and the sensitivity of your speakers. Here's an example. In my system, the phono preamp has a much lower output level than my DAC. I have the volume control up about halfway (1:00) when I listen to phono but it's close to the bottom (7:00) when I listen to a CD. That difference is just due to the different output levels of my sources.

As for your actual question, I haven't found low power amps to be able to drive speakers with 97db sensitivity at least not with all music. In my case, I have some 46 SE amps that sound much more powerful than their actual 1.25 watts output, but they don't have enough LF control with my 99db speakers and they run out of gas when I want to listen to large scale dynamic music. It's not that they sound bad, it's just that they don't get any louder after a certain point and transients become soft. For that reason I use my more powerful push-pull amps almost exclusively. My main amps use PP 6L6G outputs and they only have about 8 watts but they are very dynamic and I never have the sense they are running out of steam. I also have some 50 watt PP KT-120 amps but they do not have any more control and they are not more dynamic than the 6L6G amps.

It's difficult to generalize about how much power is needed for a given speaker. Different amps can sound more powerful or less powerful than their rated power suggests, and of course different people listen to different types of music and at different volumes.

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