I'd like to report some interesting observations about my HT setup as well as ask a question to all the smarty/technical people who understand this stuff much more than I do.
I recently purchases a Kill-A-Watt meter to make sure that my computer's power consumption was not exceeding the rated specification of its power supply. Anyway, last night I took the meter down into the HT to test the "real-world" power draw of my components.
I was happily surprised to find that all the HT stuff did not draw nearly as much power as I expected. I must also give a "BRAVO" to my Axiom speakers as they seem to sip power. My HT receiver (Denon AVR-790) draws 48W when idle. When playing rock music at -20 db (wall shaking, unhealthy loud level in my small room) using Dobly Music ProLogic II, the receiver averaged 55W and peaked at 75W every so often. Does this really mean that my speakers (M22's, VP150, QS4's) are only using between 7 and 25W? If so, this is the best use of 25 watts I have ever known
!
When playing movie soundtracks, the receiver used between 50 and 68W, even during intense action sequences with multiple channels being driven at "theater sound levels."
I then plugged my EP350 subwoofer into the Kill-A-Watt meter. When the sub is in standby mode, it draws 17W from the wall. Once it becomes active but idle, the power draw increases to 28W. Surprisingly, even when playing extremely "bassy" music or movies the power draws stays unchanging at 28W. What gives? The receiver's power draw bounced all over the place during playback, providing the varying power levels the speakers were requiring. I would have expected the subwoofer's power draw to change as well when it was working hard. If anyone can explain to me why the subwoofer's power draw does not change, I would appreciate it.
As a final note to anyone who is interested, I also checked the power consumption of my 65" Panasonic plasma (I think the model number is TC-P65S1). The manual states that the maximum power consumption of the TV is over 700W. I found that the power required varied from 75W to 375W depending, of course, on what was onscreen. The average power use was around 250W.
