Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Complete Novice amplifier question.

Bigduke6:

I personally feel that the biggest lacking inside audio equipment is a true standardisation of measurement where you can really measure one piece against another. By that, the problem with trying on paper to compare one 100watt receiver to another is virtually impossible as when it comes to driving speakers as 100watts does not necessarily equal 100watts.

As watts = voltage * current. You can get the same wattage from an amp by increasing the voltage so you don't need as much current. Marketing departments have caught onto this and now use the term High Current amplifier to describe themselves, but again that is just ma marketing term as it doesn't say relative to what.

I have an old Nakamichi receiver that has less wattage than my more modern Pioneer receiver that is in the family room, but sounds far better. Numbers on paper really are meaningless unless you have far more detail as to how those numbers were generated.

I do think that there are some brands of equipment that will give a far better sound than others do. Quite often you have to pay for that privilege and it's not just paying for the sticker name on the front, but also for what has been put inside.