Home Theater Receiver Power Ratings

You can't move a lot of air with a sound bars tiny speakers. The sub is doing what it can to help, but it is really no home theater setup. Just my opinion.
 
IMO, anything more than a 5.1 system is overkill, and just adds more clutter to the room. I don't even think rear speakers are necessary. A 3.1 system, with a decent set of front speakers, center channel speaker, and a powered sub can create sound levels equivalent to what you would experience at the movie theater, as long as you have enough power. The sub requires 2 to 3 times as much power as the rest of the system to be realistic...
 
From the user manual...
View attachment 89217

Guessing 10W RMS of useable power each for the 5 drivers in the bar, and 30-50W RMS for the sub...and that is still probably over-stating the capability.
Sound bars are good for convenience, but not much else. They simply don't have enough driver area, or power to reproduce sound to any decent levels without distortion. The subs that come with the SBs are a joke....
 
^^^ Excellent, I was looking for that information. Missed it somehow. yeah, Im sure you are correct. For years now, first with the outrageous claims of car audio years/decades? and as soon as "Home Theater" came along the deception became rampant in home audio.
Drives me NuTs.
I used to be into car audio big time back in the 80s and 90s. Back then there were a lot of U.S. built car audio amps that were truly high quality amps. I had Phoenix Gold amps in my car and they were absolute works of art. The circuit boards in these amps were milled 24K gold. I had clear covers on mine so you could see all of the amp's internals. They were also very expensive. These amps were also either 1/2, or 1/4 ohm stable. They were rated by the old standard, and I believe they all made more power than they were rated for. Once these companies started outsourcing the production of these amps, that's when all of these misleading ratings started. There for quite a while these misleading ratings were avoided by the home audio market, but it eventually, and sadly took over there too...
 
^^^ Wow and I thought I was at the cutting edge back in 1978 when I bought a almost new 1977 Honda Accord. Car was so new to the market people would stop me in parking lots and ask how I liked it. I LOVED that car but did have paint corrosion issues.
Anyway, first thing I did was upgrade the stereo, back then, to me or anyone I know that involved putting an amp in. I was the only one at the time that I knew that had one, nothing close to what you had but at the time it seemed to kick ass!
I am willing to bet the power rating was like 12 or 25 watts per channel but true rating 20 kHz/20hz @ 1% THD most likely called a 100 watt or 150 now a days oh heck, lets call it a 500 watt! *LOL*
In that Honda Accord Hatchback it sounded great, wow, ok, you got me interested, I did a search, I found a photo! I had this mounted on the plastic under the steering column. I loved it. you cant see it in the photo but both sides had a heavy cast heat sink that was the full side of the amp, in fact the heat sink was part of the construction and this little thing was pretty heavy, in fact the face plate is bolted to the side heat sink.
I LOVED this little amp. I wish I still had it.
Gosh, I miss those days, simplicity.
Screen Shot 2022-02-19 at 2.04.27 PM.png
 
Last edited by a moderator:
^^^ Wow and I thought I was at the cutting edge back in 1978 when I bought a almost new 1977 Honda Accord. Car was so new to the market people would stop me in parking lots and ask how I liked it. I LOVED that car but did have paint corrosion issues.
Anyway, first thing I did was upgrade the stereo, back then, to me or anyone I know that involved putting an amp in. I was the only one at the time that I knew that had one, nothing close to what you had but at the time it seemed to kick ass!
I am willing to bet the power rating was like 12 or 25 watts per channel but true rating 20 kHz/20hz @ 1% THD most likely called a 100 watt or 150 now a days oh heck, lets call it a 500 watt! *LOL*
In that Honda Accord Hatchback it sounded great, wow, ok, you got me interested, I did a search, I found a photo! I had this mounted on the plastic under the steering column. I loved it. you cant see it in the photo but both sides had a heavy cast heat sink that was the full side of the amp, in fact the heat sink was part of the construction and this little thing was pretty heavy, in fact the face plate is bolted to the side heat sink.
I LOVED this little amp. I wish I still had it.
Gosh, I miss those days, simplicity. View attachment 89505
I still have the Original Fosgate "Punch" 2 Channel 40 Watt .08 THD amp. It was all "heatsink" and the Panasonic component system with separate tuner and cassette player that I installed in 1978 Datsun B-210 that I bought new. I installed two Tri-ax 6X9 Pioneer speakers in the provided rear deck cutouts and I used the Sony front speaker that came with the car and hooked it up as center ambience.
That beeech would kick. Many parties in that car!
 
I still have the Original Fosgate "Punch" 2 Channel 40 Watt .08 THD amp. It was all "heatsink" and the Panasonic component system with separate tuner and cassette player that I installed in 1978 Datsun B-210 that I bought new. I installed two Tri-ax 6X9 Pioneer speakers in the provided rear deck cutouts and I used the Sony front speaker that came with the car and hooked it up as center ambience.
That beeech would kick. Many parties in that car!
Sounds awesome, ohhh my, parties yes!
Life was a party back then, we all worked hard as teenagers and young adults, oh and college but when night time came, wow! Don’t know how we did it, unbelievable times in our country.

Tri-ax speakers yeah, I got a story about those too with a pioneer amp, found a photo of it or something like it, same power, I don’t know how things sounded so good but they did, maybe the d______ and beer were partly responsible. I had a custom van with rolled and pleated and button tuff interior throughout with those Tri-ax and pioneer amp, found a photo recently. It was a party in there EVERY NIGHT of the week as well as trips upstate NY all the time.
I recently found a photo of my old van, god I loved that truck too.
Had the pioneer amp in it with Tri-ax speakers and IM struggling to remember what unit I put in, I think it was an audivox but not sure.
I realize the amps I had are considered not exactly powerful by todays standards but I can say, it was kind of rare that others had the set up and sound that I did for that time at a time when at least amp power statements were true.
s-l300.jpg
 
Last edited:
IMO, anything more than a 5.1 system is overkill, and just adds more clutter to the room. I don't even think rear speakers are necessary. A 3.1 system, with a decent set of front speakers, center channel speaker, and a powered sub can create sound levels equivalent to what you would experience at the movie theater, as long as you have enough power. The sub requires 2 to 3 times as much power as the rest of the system to be realistic...
I kind of agree, for me personally on a 5.1 if anything to keep it simple but I cant knock someone if they want more, just not for me.
Right now I have a 5.1 Yamaha AVR, two JBL rears, Paradigm right and left, JBL reference center and Yamaha sub and Yamaha AVR which is getting a little old now.
The challenge much like you is trying to find a well made unit without paying too much extra for channels I will not use and I despise units with things like Alexa built in ect.
I do need power in my room. Its an open layout home and the room it is in, ceilings are 16 feet high which carry around to the front foyer of the home. Believe it or not the current not to expensive older Yamaha drives all the speakers very cleanly to levels that would make anyone uncomfortable or more or less its been rare that I ever opened up the volume all the way, though I have on occasion to see how much I could push it, just briefly. I really heated it up briefly at times.
I dont know, maybe I am crazy but I am thinking 80 WPC, 20/20 power bandwidth 2 channels driven as the spec plus of course the other channels might be all I have right now or there about, with the separate powered sub it seems fine and the receiver like you posted kind of caught my eye as a starting point. Still satisfied with what we have right now but the day will come, if anything just for an upgrade in sound DTS Dolby codecs, ect. ect.
 
I kind of agree, for me personally on a 5.1 if anything to keep it simple but I cant knock someone if they want more, just not for me.
Right now I have a 5.1 Yamaha AVR, two JBL rears, Paradigm right and left, JBL reference center and Yamaha sub and Yamaha AVR which is getting a little old now.
The challenge much like you is trying to find a well made unit without paying too much extra for channels I will not use and I despise units with things like Alexa built in ect.
I do need power in my room. Its an open layout home and the room it is in, ceilings are 16 feet high which carry around to the front foyer of the home. Believe it or not the current not to expensive older Yamaha drives all the speakers very cleanly to levels that would make anyone uncomfortable or more or less its been rare that I ever opened up the volume all the way, though I have on occasion to see how much I could push it, just briefly. I really heated it up briefly at times.
I dont know, maybe I am crazy but I am thinking 80 WPC, 20/20 power bandwidth 2 channels driven as the spec plus of course the other channels might be all I have right now or there about, with the separate powered sub it seems fine and the receiver like you posted kind of caught my eye as a starting point. Still satisfied with what we have right now but the day will come, if anything just for an upgrade in sound DTS Dolby codecs, ect. ect.
My old Denon receiver sounds a lot like your Yamaha, only it does have Dolby/DTS. It's 80 watts a channel, and like your system, it will drive my Polk speakers to uncomfortable volume levels without distortion. It just doesn't have the newer sound processing like ATMOS and the others. I don't know what to make of the newer receivers...
 
My old Denon receiver sounds a lot like your Yamaha, only it does have Dolby/DTS. It's 80 watts a channel, and like your system, it will drive my Polk speakers to uncomfortable volume levels without distortion. It just doesn't have the newer sound processing like ATMOS and the others. I don't know what to make of the newer receivers...
I have the older Dennon AVR 887 it's 100 watts per channel .08 THD. Pro logic2 /Dolby 2 DTS and some other signal enhancements. It drives some new 8 inch dual Klipsch towers and rears with a Bose center and a 12 inch and 10 inch Klipsch subs. It'll kick. Makes my grandson's songs sound good...LOL
 
If you are running 2 pairs of Atmos you would be a 5.4.2
Just one pair of Atmos speakers...on the ceiling just in front of the listening position.

So I guess using that notation it would be 7.2.2

Front three, surround sides, surround backs, Atmos heights, and dual subs...I like the old notation of 9.2 ;-)
 
Last edited:
I have the older Dennon AVR 887 it's 100 watts per channel .08 THD. Pro logic2 /Dolby 2 DTS and some other signal enhancements. It drives some new 8 inch dual Klipsch towers and rears with a Bose center and a 12 inch and 10 inch Klipsch subs. It'll kick. Makes my grandson's songs sound good...LOL
The older Denons are powerful units. It's just too bad they don't have any HDMI jacks on them. The newer Denons I know nothing about, but it wouldn't surprise me if they've gone the way all of the other makes seem to have gone...
 
The older Denons are powerful units. It's just too bad they don't have any HDMI jacks on them. The newer Denons I know nothing about, but it wouldn't surprise me if they've gone the way all of the other makes seem to have gone...
Yeah, I agree. Most of these brand names now are owned by a handful of companies. Profit rules, competition for specs doesnt, there isnt really anyone reporting on testing these units either except for a few online sources. Nothing like decades ago with Audio Magazine, Stereo Review, Hi-Fi magazine and whatever others I forgot.
Manufactures used to compete on performance but now its features over performance.
I just looked up Denon ... check this out. Really when you think about it. I think Sony and Yamaha are the only ones left with a division that makes mainstream audio equipment not owned by someone else. I guess...

"The audio world just got noticeably smaller. Sound United, the parent company for brands like Denon, Polk Audio and Marantz, has reached a deal to buy Onkyo's home audio division, including everything from smart speakers to receivers and turntables."

"Sound United LLC, parent company to Polk Audio, Definitive Technology, and Polk BOOM, announced today that it has acquired the D+M Group, owner of the Denon, HEOS by Denon, Marantz, and Boston Acoustics brands."

Oops, now Vox owns Oynko, dont know if the last deal above ever went through .. https://www.ecoustics.com/news/voxx-international-onkyo-acquire/

Anyway, its nothing like the "old days" like much of anything anymore... Even Klipsch is owned through a company that VOX owns it seems... crazy, crazy, crazy stuff. Stamped out electronics in a throwaway world.

"On Aug. 11, 2020, VOXX International Corporation announced it has changed the legal name of its wholly owned subsidiary from Klipsch Holding, LLC to Premium Audio Company, LLC. This move is a result of the Company’s growing brand portfolio and recently announced distribution alliance with Onkyo & Pioneer Corporation."

(((But now that doesnt matter much as Voxx bought Onyko for only 31 million dollars and I assume a mountain of debt. ))))

Someone should start a list of audio companies that produce well engineered products and arent owned by someone else! *LOL*
I guess there is nothing wrong with the higher end Sony and Yamaha units. I dont know what else there is anymore.
I found another! ROTEL !!! Still family owned! But its $5000 :eek:) https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews...1580mkii-surround-amplified-processor-review/
 
Last edited:
Someone should start a list of audio companies that produce well engineered products and arent owned by someone else! *LOL*
I guess there is nothing wrong with the higher end Sony and Yamaha units. I dont know what else there is anymore.
I found another! ROTEL !!! Still family owned! But its $5000 :eek:) https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews...1580mkii-surround-amplified-processor-review/
Been a HUGE Yamaha fan for about 15 years now. They make some great sounding A/V receivers, if you choose the AVENTAGE line.
 
Just one pair of Atmos speakers...on the ceiling just in front of the listening position.

So I guess using that notation it would be 7.2.2

Front three, surround sides, surround backs, Atmos heights, and dual subs...I like the old notation of 9.2 ;-)
Correct, you have a 7.2.2. They decided to split Atmos off from the rest in designation due to their creation of specific sound objects in space as opposed to being additional traditional channels. I've got a 5.2.2 and would love a 5.4.2 but 4 in-ceiling speakers is tough when your space is a finished lower level like mine.
 
Correct, you have a 7.2.2. They decided to split Atmos off from the rest in designation due to their creation of specific sound objects in space as opposed to being additional traditional channels. I've got a 5.2.2 and would love a 5.4.2 but 4 in-ceiling speakers is tough when your space is a finished lower level like mine.
I have the same issue. I use these as my height speakers...


By far the cheapest speakers in my setup, but they do the job for the height channels, and offer good mounting options.
 
Been a HUGE Yamaha fan for about 15 years now. They make some great sounding A/V receivers, if you choose the AVENTAGE line.
Yeah, been looking at that. One thing that bothers me is the small display. I guess that they went for the minimal look, which I was into when it was just audio decades ago. But not for me in this multi purpose video/audio world. Just not liking it.
Dont think I will discount solely because of it but find the Sony http://www.sonypremiumhome.com/receivers/STR-ZA1100ES.php more appealing, granted though, the Sony power ratings in the way they list them kind of shocks me that they are using 1kHz for power output levels on one of their "premium" ES units.
I suspect the Sony is most likely a solid 80WPC 20/20 though... and sure I can find the specs someplace. Really bad for a premium product to list power like that.
 
Back
Top