Watt a ripoff!

[Texitura]

I just switched my main speakers to a pair of vintage Magnepans. I love these speakers! Since they're 4 ohm speakers and I'm using a receiver, I'm now thinking about getting an external amp for the Maggies. So I've been investigating amps and trying to learn about wattage and high-current amps and figure out exactly what will work best for me.

The first thing I learned is that receiver specs are total BS. My Yamaha HTR-5960 was supposed to have 805 total watts. 115 watts per channel times 7 channels equals 805, right? Except when I look at the back of the receiver, it says 120 volts, 400 watts. 400 watts! The maximum this gets out of the wall socket is 400 watts. I'm no electrical engineer, but I think the first person who can put 400 watts into a box and get 805 watts out is gonna be a trillionaire.

So if 400 watts maximum goes in and some is dissipated as heat, how many watts actually go to the speakers? And that's divided by 7 channels. So that's something like 50 watts per channel. Maybe even less.

This is not a slam on that receiver. It's never given me a moment's grief, it sounds great and plays louder than I'll ever need. It's got more bells and whistles than I can use. It's been great. But the specs are a complete and total lie. Wow, something of an eye-opening experience for me.