A-V receiver power ratings

you guys got that? :)

And driving the speakers is not just about wattage but the amount of current behind those watts !

Saki70:

Could you elaborate or further explain what you mean by "the amount of current behind those watts"? That would help me tremendously. Do you mean in voltage? Thanks.

You're really looking for RMS watts throughout the power band, e.g. 20-20KHz, all channels driven simultaneously into a stated load, usually 8 ohms. In many good amps, that number doubles into 4 ohms. You should look at THM and IM distortion as well; these usually rise rapidly above the rated power, but that is of little concern if the power is adequate to your needs and the distortion base is low. You do need to read the fine print.

db

Pdn ; You are really testing this ole sole !
I will try but encourage corrections where needed !

Current is another name for amps . Watts are figured as the amount of volts times the amount of amps . This will give you the peak watts .
To get the 'working' wattage , or what is left after the losses from the theoretical peak through the circuitry , you multiply the peak wattage times a number which I believe is @ .686 . This is the RMS wattage refered to above .
As you can see a high voltage and low amperage will give you the same wattage as if you reversed the numbers to a low voltage and a high amperage using the same values . Say 100volts X 5amps = 500watts so 5volts X 100 amps = 500 watts also.

The current (amperage) is the driving force for the voltage . It is easier and cheaper to produce high voltage than it is to produce high amperage . The high amperage units will need bigger (heavier) transformers as opposed to a low amperage amplifier .
This is one area where the exspense comes in to play for A/V receivers . They will have small (lite weight)transformers that give high voltage but low amperage to achieve the stated wattage .
This is not necessarily a bad thing if you tailor your speaker choice accordingly .

These low curent amps will work much better if you choose a reasonably efficient speaker , say in the 90db. range and above . You will also want a rather benign or flat frequency response that does not have any wild swings and does not go very low . Here you may want to look for an impedence of say 8 ohms and a nominal impedence of 6 ohms for the low amperage amps.

The doubling down , mentioned above , is a way to tell if an amp has a higher current amount used in figuring the wattage . Here you want an output of something like 100 watts into 8 ohms and 200 watts into 4 ohms . Rather than 100 watts into 8 ohms and 125 watts into 4 ohms . Where the wattage into 4 ohms is double the wattage into 8 ohms denotes a higher current (amperage) amplifier that will drive more difficult speakers such as 8 ohms with a nominal impedence of 3 ohms . The higher current will be able to drive the voltage into a more difficult load that is presented by the speaker .

I hope that this is reasonbly correct and of some help to you .