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I've never been brave enough to find the limits of my system, because it would be painfully loud. If a system is substantial enough, I wouldn't be too concerned about it. Otherwise, I do believe that a short period of clipping won't do any damage; never has for myself. It's continuous clipping, AFAIK, that will do serious damage. That should allow you to crank it 'till you get audible clipping, then back it down. Over powering a speaker won't "blow" a speaker; it won't cause the voice coil to seize. It can, however, cause over excursion, causing them to bottom out.
The sensitivity of a speaker (i.e. 89db) is the db produced with 1 watt at 1 meter, IIRC. Given that, the speakers max watt rating, and the amplifier's output, you should be able to calculate the db output by a particular "system". RMS and Peak should also be taken into consideration. The resistance (ohms) also plays into this, since output of the amp may be rated at 8 ohms, the output at 4 ohms is entirely different.
Also, another factor that plays into all of this is "headroom", and unfortunately the standard for the "large" (i.e. Best Buy, Sears, Circuit City, etc...) distribution channels is to not include that spec (Dynamic Headroom). This would relate to "Peak Watts" on a speaker. I'm a Yamaha guy, and that's one difference between the HTR line distributed at such retailers and the RX line distributed by A/V dealers. Your amp may have 500W, but does it have power in research for demanding peaks?
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