I think you may be misunderstanding the relationship between amplifier power and speaker capacity.

I'll cop to that readily. My car stereo experience is exactly nil, so any explanation of this type is both welcome and enjoyed.

A good friend from work has an amp he used for a very short time. He assures me it is quite up to the task of taking care of my empeg at 400w and best of all he is willing to give it to me for $60. I won't do the deal 'til tomorrow night at the earliest, though, so any further input on other equipment I should consider instead of said deal would be helpful.

Thanks again for the tutorial, tanstaafl. Much needed and appreciated.