Bayne,

The difference you are wondering about really comes down to the power supply. Coincidently I wrote a little piece about this in our newsletter today. I suspected it would be a question many people would have. Receiver power is almost always rated at the RMS power per channel with one channel driven or with the remaining six channels running at 1/8 power. This means that 130 watts per channel is either 17 watts or 32 watts per channel with all channels driven. Beyond the weak all channels driven power receiver amplifiers are generally also hard limited at the max power rating, 130 watts in your case. This lack of dynamic head room means any required short burst of power above 130 watts will not be reproduced. In some ways quite similar to the type of problem Mark was commenting on.

Ian Colquhoun
President & Chief Engineer