I'm sorry, but I don't know how Cool Edit does the Statistical Analysis function. Since the function is performed entirely digitally, I can't see any reason for it being inaccurate. It is only a case for the maths to be done right. Just by inspection of the waveform, you can see that modern pop recordings are usually very highly compressed. If you want, I'll post some screenshots of this.
The Rane note I linked to earlier has more about this. Reading it, my impression was that clipping is not usually audible because the bass content clips first. I know what you are saying, but I think the key thing that the Rane note says is that clipping isn't very audible. This is why people (they are most likely referring to mixers) are quite happy to keep turning the volume up all they way until the tweeter finally blows. It is because the distortion created by bass clipping is not very audible. I don't know enough about this subject to give a better explanation. This is surely why most material is compressed in studio - no producer wants the home listener to damage their speakers. Telarc are an exception to this and sometimes put a warning on their discs not turn the volume up too high on your first listen.
As I said on my previous post, with highly compressed pop music, I can't see how you could push your amplifier into clipping. The volume level you would need would be like standing next to a pneumatic drill. I could see how you could clip with a good classical recording, but clips would probably still be infrequent and therefore inaudible, that is unless you really cranked up the volume.
The Bowers and Wilkins site does support the view that some people, like hifihoney, have said, the idea that better amplifiers offer better bass performance. This, it says, is because more powerful amplifiers can better cope with speakers having large dips in impedance. After all, it is the low bass that is the most energetically demanding part to reproduce for the amplifier. I'm sure that mtrycrafts would point to double blind tests as showing that this is unimportant or too subtle a difference to be noticed. My own view is that at normal volumes, an average amplifier should manage perfectly well with most programme. If you want much more than 90 dB of low bass or room-shaking bass, then you'll most likely need a better amplifier or more efficient speakers. My own 30 watt Tannoy Lancaster speakers are quite efficient, and manage to produce enough bass for my needs.
B&W happily say that most of their speakers aren't suitable for disco-like, room-shaking bass. This is probably why they are used more for classical music than pop.
