What does 100 watts x 7 into 8 ohms mean? Does it mean theres 700 watts?

Question

I'm buying a reciever, i have all the speakers already but i dont want a reciever with low watts. So does this mean it has 700.

its a Sony

Answer 1

Yes.
It means you have 100 watts in each speaker.
You will have 700 watts at maximun volume and if your input audio is delivering maximun sound to those 7 channels.
In some cases like a movie with dolby digital audio, rear speakers delivers audio if in scene there is action at the back.
8 ohms is the impedance of speaker you need to use. If you do not use 8 ohm, you will have less power (less watts).
But in general, you have 700 watts.

Answer 2

Be careful here. It is really easy to lie or mislead about power in a receiver.

You want to make sure the power rating is for:

- All channels driven (not just stereo)
- 8 ohm non-reactive load (not 6,4 ohms)
- Power is RMS (not 'peak' or 'peak envelope power')
- Total Harmonic Distortion under .05 % or as low as possible

If a receiver company wanted to, they could make their receivers power numbers look 2-3 times larger than it really is by playing with the above.

In truth - your receiver puts out on average 5-10 watts per speaker per second. But it takes HUGE swings in power to jump the volume. This is why you want decent numbers for a receiver.