surveyor said:
Is it better to have the same , or near the same Watt output to all channels on your home theatre system?
Cheers
In general, I prefer that. But it also depends on the format of movie soundtrack and the multichannel music content that you prefer.
Listening to Dolby prologic format will not require you to have the rear surround channels of equal power with your fronts. The ambience information rerely goes below 100hz. That's the region of the audible spectra that demands power. But it's possible the Prologic II format will. And not all DD and DTS encoded DVDs have low frequencies at the rear or loud enough to require the same power as the front.
It is the argument of those who don't mind rating an amp with just one channel driven to say that in real Ht listning conditions, not all channels will deliver the same signals as to demand the same power from all channels at the same time. To a large extent, that is true. Even a jetplane coming from left to right, front to back or back to front will not require all channels to deliver the thunderous jet roar at the same time. So it has become fashionable among HT recievers to just state the power on 2 channels driven or 1 channel driven. But i find that misleading as well. They are assuming a lot. They are assuming you will never have the occasion to listen to a material where ALL the channels would have to be driven at the same time requiring the power as CLAIMED by the manufacturer.
If you happen to listen to a DVD-audio or SACD belting out full range signals discreetly to each of the 5 channels, you'd know what I mean. In answering your question, for me, with whatever format, I expect all my channels to be of equal power and my speakers to be up to the demand.
