WOW. I woke up this morning and checked our stats logs and noticed high Axiom Audio hits which is usually uncommon. I came here and found people in disarray regarding my comments on power rating of the RXV-2400 review and thought I should comment.
First I would like to say the whole concept of power is one of the most widely misunderstood topics in consumer audio. In reality, most people doing home theater use high efficient speakers (>90dB SPL @ 1 meter) and place their multi channel speaker packages in medium sized, usually lively living rooms. This being the case, the receiver/power amp spends most of its time at the low end of the spectrum in terms of power delivery. Usual power draw is between 4-5 watts rms/channel to achieve 80-85dB SPL at the listening position. Which is quite loud! Also, consider that most people doing home theater have actively powered subwoofers (this is where power is needed most!) the headroom of their receivers is greatly improved since it is not taxed to deliver all of that raw bass power to the speakers. That being the case, it is critical for an amp to be very clean, and noise free to preserve low level details. In that regard, the Yamaha does an impeccable job.
When you consider the $1000 price point, what do you expect? As a processor alone, this receiver outguns most costlier dedicated processors. IF you feel you need more power down the road, add another amp and preamp out the receiver!
I certainly don't hope people look at my power estimates and start bring their receivers back because they feel as if they have been robbed!
The RXV-2400 has a 640VA Xformer, one of the biggest in its price class! I don't know of any other 7CH receiver for $1000 retail that will deliver more power (>10wpc or so) than this one does, so please don't feel as if you are being ripped off.
It is funny how people never question cable vendor claims of cables that cost more than this receiver, and how they don't even require cable metrics to measure or compare their performance.
I know I am new to this forum and don't want to solicite links to Audioholics, but I encourage you to read some of our articles on these topics. We even have an SPL calculator that talks about how much power you need in your room based on room dimensions, #of speakers, liveliness, etc.
On a closing note, consider that average power of your receiver is about 1 watt /channel (to reach 75dB SPL at listening position with moderately sensitive speaker system), if you consider 20dB of dynamic headroom required for music as a good rule of thumb (THX recommendation as well) then to reach 95dB peaks, would require 100wpc which the Yamaha WILL deliver to each channel for short periods of time. Music is peaky in nature, not continuous with all channels driven. Also note that most receivers and amps use unregulated power supplies and most audio reviewers hold the line voltage constant (another unrealistic condition) when making power measurements. This helps to inflate the power numbers to make products look better. Stay tuned as we are currently working on building a 5CH power test load and we will be making accurate power measurements (without holding the line voltage constant.
Now if you plan on using low efficient ESL's or wish to blast your neighbors out with 100dB SPL levels continuosly, for example, an external amp would be advised.
