Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions High Instataneous Current Capability

I was reading specs on receivers on the HK website and was looking at the high instantaneous current (HCC) specs, do other manufacturers provide this as well? How important is this spec? I do not recall seeing it on any of the other websites for Outlaw, Denon, Onkyo, etc. The AVR-635 says +/- 50 Amps. I think my old HK Signature 2.1 says +/- 100 Amps. What difference would this make in the listening experience? I am thinking it is for the dynamic headroom people talk so much about, the sudden loud passages especially found in movies etc.

Anyway my question is why other manufacturers do not provide this figure. Or maybe they call it something else?

Ronnie, that "high instantaneous current" spec isn't especially meaningful. The key word is "instantaneous", meaning an instant maybe a few millionths of a second long. The amperage needed for a given amount of power is described by Ohm's Law, one form of which is P=VxI(power in watts equals volts times amps). Home receiver/amplifiers operate in the area of 30-40 volts(the 120V from the wall outlet is stepped down about 3 or 4 by the transformer in the power supply section of the receiver). Speakers use about one watt at a comfortably loud average level and if a brief peak called for 100 watts the amperage required would only be about 3 amps(P=VxI, 100=33.3x3). Gene DellaSala's comments about "higher current" in his "misconceptions" section may be of interest.

So, don't be overly concerned with current ratings. If a receiver can supply a certain amount of power that means that it's also supplying the current required for that power.

Thanks for the link. Those manufactureers are some sneaky bastards.