How Many Watts Do You Really Need for HiFI and Home Theater?

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How Many Watts Do You Really Need for HiFI and Home Theater?
Don't get got! Learn how to calculate how many watts you really need.
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[MattyDaddy]

Thank you sooo much for doing this video!! I thought I knew speaker sensitivity and wattages etc.. I now know I’m a newbie!! Saved for future reference!! 🎉

[ElCidPhysics]

Really good video. Question: Towards the end you implied an amp rated for say 300 W/channel would pull that. That’s not the case though is it? Just bc the amp can doesn’t mean it will always pull that much wattage, right?

[GauravSingh-pxrh]

In 2001 I bought a sansui Dolby surround home theater package of amp 150 w 50 hz, two left right with 8 ohm 15-watt full-range and 10watt 8 ohm tweeter which made the left right 25 watt each, center 8 ohm 15-watt one full-range only, two rear speakers 16 ohm 10 watt full-range and a subwoofer 6 ohm 30 watt. I live in Delhi India in quit noisy environment even thought the system was way too loud that the volume hardly went a above 40 percent while normal listening 70 percent some gather or birthday parties.

[specialever]

The average sensitivity of a tower speaker is around 89 dB. Smaller speakers are usually down to 85 dB, due to the smaller cabinet. And you also have to take the current draw due to impedance of the speaker. In short .. there are many variables to this, and you run out of headroom very quickly if you are aiming for reference levels on multi channel receivers and amplifiers!
BTW.. with any Klipsch speaker, you need to subtract 6 dB from the "official" sensitivity rating, to make it comparable to other speakers.

[donjaun]

You are so right. You need power to make power. This is true in car audio too. I have the potential stereo to get loud but I find that I am good with 70-85 db if I feel froggy 🐸 loud. I enjoy it more with clarity. When everything is so loud 🔊📢 it's hard for me to distinguish what sounds are coming from where. Good job.👍

[davidpalermo]

I’m trying to understand all this. I have a pair of Paradigm Reference Studio 100 v5, and a Marantz sr7007 AVR. I’m being told to get a dedicated 2 channel integrated amp for better sounding music. I don’t necessarily want loud music. I want great sounding music. How can I determine how best to match an integrated amp for my Paradigm speakers?

Also, what the url to that room calculator you showed? I couldn’t find it in your notes. Thank you!

[johnbancroft]

My Monitor Audio gold centre, and front left/right are rated at 90db. The bronze surround and rear surrounds are 87db, These are powered by Emotiva BasX A3 and A4 amps. This allows my Denon X6700h to power my 6 Bowers and Wilkins M-1 heights to more than enough volume than I will ever use. Obviously the Denon alone would not be able to push all 13 speakers to reference levels. I have two SVS subs handling the low end stuff. PS I live in the UK with 240V circuit, each power socket can handle just over 3kw, (3000 Watts) so im not even getting anywhere near overload.

[pandemonium]

Some people like Toyota Camrys (lower wattage) others like Ferraris (High Wattage). Do you need a Ferrari while driving on public roads? No, but some like to know they have the grunt regardless. It boils down to what makes you happy and how deep your pockets are. The listener will be staring at their components for a long time. Cheers!

[scott-richardson]

People are obsessed with watts RMS. This is a great guide and I think a lot of people will get a lot out of this.

I will add, however, that a lot of the big subwoofers available now have such wonderful low frequency extension because they utilise in-build DSP that is out of the user's control. It's baked into the amplifier by the manufacturer, essentially creating a house-curve, especially in sealed subs. The DSP EQ slopes up the super low frequencies below 30Hz, and the deeper it goes, the more the EQ pushes the volume up. And to achieve this considerably large boost down low, it requires TONS of headroom in the amplifier module. So when you're +10dB boosted in the low end, you're chewing 10 x the power as the other frequencies to achieve this 'awesome bass extension out of a commercially available sub'!

[stevieg]

Excellent video...So a typical 7-speaker surround sound system needs approximately 70 watts per channel or 490 watts?

[dimitrioskalfakis]

good points; but even if your daily needs are met with a steady state of 1 watt average your system (amp-speakers) should be able to respond to a peak of 25 watts if the music program has a crest factor of 5 since everything is not a violin in a quartet ;-)

[SlyNine]

When doing the watt measurement. Doesn't that depend on the frequency?

[TimpBizkit]

I actually down sized my amplifiers. I was running an efficient horn system on 2 x Peavey IPR1600. I switched to 2 x SMSL SA98E. The treble is loud enough to hurt my ears. The bass is loud enough for the neighbour to ask me to turn it down despite not sharing walls. The SMSL have no fan noise, and they don't glow blue if I want to watch a film in the dark. Oh yeah they sip about 3 watts at idle even on the 36 volt power brick (you can use as little as 12 volts if you don't need the output and then it's about 0.7 watts). A peavey IPR1600 uses at a rate of 40 watts just to keep it powered on. With two of the amplifiers and speaker management, total was 95 watts just to be powered on and now it's 19 watts.

I'm curious to know how loud the system plays on the amplifiers from four speakers from cans of pringles. I suspect the mids and highs will be plenty loud and the bass will have a bit of thump but not be as impressive.

[vincemccarty]

I run a denon avr-a110 all 13 channels going and a beringer supposedly 12k amp with 18s and at very loud volume it was drawing about 7.5 amps which is less than I expected and even hit 130 db maxed the meter out. I also run all klipsch and dayton subs

[D.L.W.]

My sound system consists of 4 SVS Ultra Bookshelf speakers (2 for the mains and 2 for the side channels), an SVS Ultra Center speaker, 6 SVS Prime Elevation speakers (4 ceiling mounted for Dolby Atmos and 2 mounted on the back wall for the rear channels) and 2 SVS SB-3000 Subwoofers. The system is powered by a Yamaha Aventage RX-A8A 11 channel AVR. Everything, including the dual subwoofers, are plugged into a M5400-PM Power Conditioner, running off a 15 amp circuit. No problems. 👍👍

[TimpBizkit]

With 240 volts, you can REALLY blast the stereo here in the UK. In terms of power from the wall, an amp at max volume will draw ~
RMS rating x 10^(average music level in negative dBfs/10)/amplifier efficiency.
If you listen to compressed rock with -6dBFs average level on 1000 watt 70% efficient amplifier at maximum volume - power draw is going to be ~1000 x 10^(-6/10) / 70% ~1400 x 0.25 ~ 350 watts. If your speakers have reasonable efficiency - let alone a horn rig this is going to be face meltingly loud in a domestic setting. This is also assuming the speakers have a flat nominal impedance curve, which is seldom the case. I am assuming that peak power demands are smoothed over either by internal capacitors or just the wall supply's capacity.

[eugenecountryman]

I run powerful amplifiers, Crown Xli 3500's.True rated amplifiers. with dedicated breakers and outlets. The difference is my movie system is all PA. As for 80 db with movies I turn the system up so movie vocals are a little bit more than human conversations, Everything opens up from there. At times with movie transients are 100 DB+ at any given action part. with head room for awesome dynamics. With PA I know I can reach sound limits that the majority of home audio cant! and rest to sure that PA do it effortlessly. One thing to mention, that should have been in this video. ( Cabin gain, ) This plays in to the watts and sensitivity factor big time. This can make or break speakers overall loud performance. on top of How many speakers is one running ? How close are you to the speakers ? Room size, all play a major role in how loud ones system sensitivity truly is. This apply's to any listening environment. 80 DB's could be more like 89 -90 DB in a small room, or sound small and weak if room is to big. a lot more to factor in than speaker sensitivity and watts.

[laurocantu]

So, if the speaker companies are not being completely honest about the sensitivity ratings of their speakers, and amp companies are not being honest with the power ratings of their amps...where does that leave us as consumers?

[nathanjohnson]

@Jiles I love this kind of video! It helps to take a moment to think about what I really need before buying excess power I may rarely use. If I mostly send 5-10 watts to my front speakers, then any quality AVR rated at 75 watts per channel should have enough headroom for watching movies in my living room.

In your experience, how can I apply this approach to subwoofers? How much subwoofer do I really need in a large living room? (23x19x8ft) e.g, Would a pair of 18" GSG Mini Marties be overkill? Would a pair of 15" GSG SQL-15 Cubes be just right? Would a pair of Starke SW15s be too little?

[Douglas_Blake_]

Hello Jiles... I'm copying from below, I hope you don't mind...

Are you certain your premise is correct?

I have a sound level meter and between 1m from my speakers to my sitting position about 4m away there is only about 3 dba of difference. Even in the far corners of my room there is only 6 or 8 dba of difference.

A lot of these online calculators are based on the Inverse Square Law which calculates field density in free space with omnidirectional sources. But a room is not free space and speakers are not omnidirectional...