Receiver's WPC and power consumption related?

[Patrick_Wolf]

Looking through the manuals' of receivers it states "power consumption", is this related to the amp and how many watts per channel it can put out?

I ask because I've been comparing the SR4002 (80 wpc, 450w power consumption) and VSX-819H (manual says 80 wpc continuous, 250w power consumption).

I read that Pioneer's wpc are less than what they say, but even so it should still be adequate for speakers that recommend up to 120 watts amp power, no?

 

[mtrycrafts]

Looking through the manuals' of receivers it states "power consumption", is this related to the amp and how many watts per channel it can put out?

I ask because I've been comparing the SR4002 (80 wpc, 450w power consumption) and VSX-819H (manual says 80 wpc continuous, 250w power consumption).

I read that Pioneer's wpc are less than what they say, but even so it should still be adequate for speakers that recommend up to 120 watts amp power, no?

Well, somewhat
The power consumption is a UL rating. I believe in multi ch receivers, two are at full power and the rest at reduced power, perhaps 1/8th? Most likely because in normal operation suroound ch don't consume much power.

There was a post or a tech article on this here someplace

 

[MatthewB.]

For my two system I have Monsters (I know already) AVS2000SS Voltage Regulators (hey I got em for 299.00/ea on CC closeout sales. Anyway they show how many amps are being used at any given time and when watching movies most of the time my system is chugging along at 4.5 amps but when the bass heavy action scenes come up that number can jump all the way up to 6 and sometimes 7, but I do run alot of bass and have the volume pretty loud. I don't think its how much the reciever runs at normal but when you push the speakers connected pretty hard and loud, then your whole system will require alot more juice to operate.

 

[Patrick_Wolf]

For my two system I have Monsters (I know already) AVS2000SS Voltage Regulators (hey I got em for 299.00/ea on CC closeout sales. Anyway they show how many amps are being used at any given time and when watching movies most of the time my system is chugging along at 4.5 amps but when the bass heavy action scenes come up that number can jump all the way up to 6 and sometimes 7, but I do run alot of bass and have the volume pretty loud. I don't think its how much the reciever runs at normal but when you push the speakers connected pretty hard and loud, then your whole system will require alot more juice to operate.

Well no one will be sitting more than 6 ft. away in my setup (all bookshelf speakers) and I live in an apartment so even if the Pioneer only put out 60 wpc it'd probably be perfectly fine if kept at a reasonable volume. Not too loud, just loud enough to "experience" the movie.

 

[MatthewB.]

I have DefTech 7001 towers and hooked up to an amp that has gauges that tell you how many watts are being pushed at any given time. I was watching Lord of the Rings at very loud levels and I sit 10 feet back and my gauges never got above 70 watts, so at 6 feet you should be more than happy.

 

[rnatalli]

The Marantz 4002 will outcrank the 819. The newer Pioneers skimped even further on their amp sections. Yamaha, Sony, and Onkyo seem to be following suit with this year's models. Marantz receivers generally come pretty close if not exceed their stated power specs when tested on the bench. But if you're using efficient speakers, it might not matter as the Marantz will probably only give you a 3db gain over the Pio anyways.

 

[Patrick_Wolf]

The Marantz 4002 will outcrank the 819. The newer Pioneers skimped even further on their amp sections. Yamaha, Sony, and Onkyo seem to be following suit with this year's models. Marantz receivers generally come pretty close if not exceed their stated power specs when tested on the bench. But if you're using efficient speakers, it might not matter as the Marantz will probably only give you a 3db gain over the Pio anyways.

So I read. But I just saw something interesting.

The 819H replaces the 818V-K.

The 819 states 110w vs 120w on the 818. However, the newer 819 weighs about 2 lbs. more, while that is relatively insignificant considering they're dimensions & build appear virtually identical.

The most interesting thing is that the Power Amplifer Design on the 818 is PHAT, and the amp design on the 819 is Discrete (Advanced Direct Energy). Which is the design used in Pioneer's low-end Elite models.

Maybe this isn't very significant, than again maybe it is?

 

[rnatalli]

The 918 which a step up from the 818 only delivered around 40wpc. It's unlikely the 819 will do better.

PHAT = Marketing

 

[Patrick_Wolf]

The 918 which a step up from the 818 only delivered around 40wpc. It's unlikely the 819 will do better.

Where do you get 40wpc from? And is it really all that bad? I mean how many watts are really needed?; Say if you're at 2 meters with an 89dB 1w/1m bookshelf speaker, if listening at 89dB?

 

[rnatalli]

http://hometheatermag.com/receivers/808piorec/index2.html

It was actually worst than I recalled. 34wpc into 5 channels.

It's probably enough to drive reasonably-efficient speakers to loud-enough levels; however, it's always good to have headroom. Also keep in mind, you lose db as you move away from a speaker and hardly anyone sits at 1 meter. The Pioneer should do fine so long as you don't hook up speakers with say an 83db efficiency. What speakers are you planning to drive?

 

[Patrick_Wolf]

http://hometheatermag.com/receivers/808piorec/index2.html

It was actually worst than I recalled. 34wpc into 5 channels.

It's probably enough to drive reasonably-efficient speakers to loud-enough levels; however, it's always good to have headroom. Also keep in mind, you lose db as you move away from a speaker and hardly anyone sits at 1 meter. The Pioneer should do fine so long as you don't hook up speakers with say an 83db efficiency. What speakers are you planning to drive?

Yikes. Well, guest seating is about 6.5ft away. However, I have low vison and will sit much closer when alone. The speaker setup I'm considering is this.

Fronts will probably be one of these setups:

Mains/Center: Axiom M2 v2
Mains: Energy CB-5s -- Center: CC-5
Mains: CB-10s -- Center: CC-5 or CC-10
Surrounds: CB-5s

 

[mtrycrafts]

Yikes. Well, guest seating is about 6.5ft away. However, I have low vison and will sit much closer when alone. The speaker setup I'm considering is this.

Fronts will probably be one of these setups:

]

I wouldn't get worried about that all channels driven spec. What soundtrack drives all 5 speakers to full power need at the same instant in time. No one has posted such data yet so I would not worry. Besides, the mids and highs take little power to make them loud to begin with and if you have a sub, that takes care of the muscle power.

 

[Patrick_Wolf]

The SR4002 was $550 when it was part of the Marantz line-up, the 819 is $300 right out of the gate. 4002 refurb is $300 now. 1 year warranty on both. I'm guessing the 4002 has better, well, pretty much everything, aside from HD decoding (which I don't need). Looks like the signal-to-noise ratio is better, the DACs are probably higher quality, and a better amp which I wouldn't ever come close to stressing so it'd probably run cooler.

Yeeaahh, I think the choice is pretty clear.