What is the advantage of more wattage in a surround sound system?

Answer 1

Generally, more wattage = greater volume. However, there are many more variables involved like how are the watts measured by the manufacturer, how clean are the watts that the receiver is putting out, and how efficient are the speakers.

You are better off, buying a receiver that is of higher quality than offering more watts. For example, a 70 watt-per-channel Onkyo surround receiver will outperform a 100 watt-per-channel Sanyo home theater receiver.

I suggest that you consider brands like Onkyo, Yamaha, Denon, and Pioneer or Pioneer Elite and get the highest model you can afford.

Then, consider speaker brands like Hsu Research, BIC Acoustech, or Athena. And for subs, either Hsu Reseach, SVS, or Dayton Audio.

Let me know if I can answer any specific questions, feel free to e-mail me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/home_theater

Xe♫

Answer 2

The advantage is clearer more detailed sound ,not loudness .If you have an amplifier that is rated at say 200 watts per channel make sure that the out put is stated in continuous watts not peak(peak power output is an inflated measurement to make the amplifier appear to have more watts )

The loudspeakers will have a minimum power requirement and a maximum power rating.If the maximum power the speakers can handle is less than the amplifier total output.,you can still use them as long as you don't turn the volume up too high . Remember we are after clarity not volume.

Most of the time the amplifier is only using part of its output but when a musical peak comes along it handles the peak without going into overload.Also the speakers can handle a higher wattage for a short time without being damaged.

Actually a speaker is likely to be damaged if it receives a low power distorted signal from the amplifier.

Hope this has been useful for you.

Answer 3

Watts are a way to measure power but Watts are far from just meaning how loud does it go. there are Peaks in the audio tracks and although RMS wattage may be low the headroom may allow for extended peaks. for example a cheap reciever of 100 wats may play 100 wats constant, but even slight peaks cause it to clip (distort). and many tracks can peak up to 4-5 times the constant output (ive heard 10x but i hesitate to believe it), so to avoid clipping all together that amp could only run around 35-40 watts rms.. make sense.? now compare that to a higher end unit rated at 80Watts with 6db headroom (ever 3db is essentially double your wattage.) now this reciever can peak for a instant signal without clipping up to around 300 watts. giving it unclipped rms at 80Watts.

lets look at a analogy. lets say music is water and the amplifier is the means to transporting that water from one storage place to another will call the second a swimming pool. Wattage would be how much water is comming out a spicket, important to have good flow if you want to fill up a pool. problem is that water comming out is clear accross the yard from the pool. so you use a bucket (a hose would mess up the anaylogy) how big that bucket is would be amperage. and head room would be how many buckets you can use (fill one up while walking another accross the yard). so a cheap amp with low current and no headroom is essential like having a single small bucket. a high current amp with high headroom is like having 3 buckets that are very large. you can see how this will fill up the pool much quicker, or produce much better sound without loosing detail (water). now dont take what i said literially it is just meant to give a bit of a insight to what make sa good amp.

Answer 4

Wattage is used as a baseline for price tags. For better sound, check out how much current runs through it. Low current but high watts means lots of distortion at high volume. Current measures how hard the amp has to work to create clean crisp sound. Easier way to test, pick it up, heavy ones usually do a better job reproducing louder music.

Answer 5

it would be more peek power,

like lets just say a mouse makes a noise, you need very little power to make that noise

but lets just say a plane goes off, well you are going to need a lot of power for that

the problem is that people cheat there power, they rate it some times just at 1k, as opposed to 20-20000 hz, so some times a high end peice of equ might have lower specs and play loader

so do no by your peice of equ just based on that, but it is good to have more power on demand for big rooms and things like that

the best way to tell is make them play it load, really load!

Answer 6

more power to handle larger volume 'cleaner' without distortion,plus it sounds wwwaaaaaaay better.Providing that you have a really good speaker system.

Answer 7

There is no advantage if you don't need it.