AVS › AVS Forum › Audio › Home Theater In A Box › So I bought this 900watt sony in a box and had some wattage questions..
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

So I bought this 900watt sony in a box and had some wattage questions..

post #1 of 6
3/8/13 at 11:03am
Thread Starter 
A couple of years ago about 2008, I bought a sony 5.1 home theater, 900 watts, Pretty nice system if you ask me.. Had prologic I and II, dolby, music settings, and ofc 2channel sterio.. And all that other fancy garbage, Had lots of power, blew the lil speakers it came with in about 1 week smile.gif
So then.... I was yardsaleing, I found an AKAI AM-2800 for 10$, and a Technics SH-8010 Equalizer, for 5$, I offered the lady 5$ for both.. She took it.. LOL I knew what I had too, she obviously had no idea what she was selling... biggrin.gif
Anyway, If im correct the AKAI AM-2800 is 100watts per channel, 4-8 ohm, speaker A, And 8-16 ohm speaker A&B.
And it has a spot for 4 speakers, 2 left, 2 right, so im not sure if that would make it 400 watts, being 100 watts per channel? or would it only be 200 watts...
Another thing.. This thing being only 200-400 watts compared to my sony 900 watt, Well the AKAI AM-2800 OWNED the sony both in power and clarity, prolly 10x over, I hooked my peavy dj speakers to it, and i thought I was at a concert.. The sony was loud to.. But it seemed to lose clarity and distort at higher levels, compared to the akai, where it would stay super clear, only thing it would do is fuzz a tiny bit, not even a buzz, just a very light fuzzing wind sound, not even noticeable if a track was playing.. Honestly the best system Ive ever heard, This thing blows away my buddies HK...


But im curious, Why is the akai am 2800 so much more powerfull and clear n clean n crisp, when its only like 200 watts... Where the sony was 900 watts, but literally sounds like crap compared to the akai...

I ended up like giving my buddie the sony thats how much i neglected it......


So whats different with the wattage system??

What did they do years ago, that they do different now in terms of rating wattage..??
I was trying to explain it to a friend but i sounded like an idiot and had to stop cause i really dont know or understand much about wattage, All I know is they did somehting different back then as they do now..
Reply
Reply

AVS Top Picks

post #2 of 6
3/8/13 at 12:19pm
The wattage ratings used are all over the place. Comparing 100W per channel RMS (and RMS can be either 20Hz-20kHz vs 1kHz to make it more fun, both are often used) to 100W peak power is completely different, and then it still depends at what level of distortion the measurement is based on. So, first you have to find out what the full specs were for the power rating. It's basically marketing people trying to throw the largest number at people who don't understand the number. Try searching the forums for "amplifier power ratings explained" or similar....

Your HTIB amplifier is probably rated at the highest possible number they could come up with whereas your older unit probably is at a more conservative rating (but if you use A & B you are not getting a separate amp, you're using the same amp and reducing the power to each channel when driven simultaneously).
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 6
3/8/13 at 12:31pm
I don't know much about how they test the wattage output as far as the past versus the present goes except that they were maybe a little more honest back then. That sony would never output 900 watts lol. Watts are just a big marketing ploy 90% of the time. what they do is take one channel and find the max wattage that it might output for a split second then multiply that by 5, or 6 if there is a subwoofer. Ever hear of Max wattage vs RMS? that Sony might have a max wattage of 175 that it is capable of handling for one channel for a brief moment. Do you see what I mean?

good find on that AKAI though definitely a powerful piece and a great bargin.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 6
3/8/13 at 12:54pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick_si View Post

I don't know much about how they test the wattage output as far as the past versus the present goes except that they were maybe a little more honest back then. That sony would never output 900 watts lol. Watts are just a big marketing ploy 90% of the time. what they do is take one channel and find the max wattage that it might output for a split second then multiply that by 5, or 6 if there is a subwoofer. Ever hear of Max wattage vs RMS? that Sony might have a max wattage of 175 that it is capable of handling for one channel for a brief moment. Do you see what I mean?

good find on that AKAI though definitely a powerful piece and a great bargin.

Believe me, This akai, Shes my baby, im even scared to turn the knobs and stuff cause i want it to last forever, its really all u need for a music system, In my opinion all this fancy 5.1 stuff is overrated, I like the sound of my old AKAI with good speakers n crossover system, hooked into my computer, Only issue is, If the speakers arent good, dont crank it, cause u will blow em instantly, and volume is very sensitive, 3 is loud as hell...... unless I -20 the peak in vlc.

But I can even make a crappy pair of speakers sound gold, At a low level listening, I prefer quality sound over just loud anyway...
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 6
3/8/13 at 7:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChronicStoned View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick_si View Post

I don't know much about how they test the wattage output as far as the past versus the present goes except that they were maybe a little more honest back then. That sony would never output 900 watts lol. Watts are just a big marketing ploy 90% of the time. what they do is take one channel and find the max wattage that it might output for a split second then multiply that by 5, or 6 if there is a subwoofer. Ever hear of Max wattage vs RMS? that Sony might have a max wattage of 175 that it is capable of handling for one channel for a brief moment. Do you see what I mean?

good find on that AKAI though definitely a powerful piece and a great bargin.

Believe me, This akai, Shes my baby, im even scared to turn the knobs and stuff cause i want it to last forever, its really all u need for a music system, In my opinion all this fancy 5.1 stuff is overrated, I like the sound of my old AKAI with good speakers n crossover system, hooked into my computer, Only issue is, If the speakers arent good, dont crank it, cause u will blow em instantly, and volume is very sensitive, 3 is loud as hell...... unless I -20 the peak in vlc.

But I can even make a crappy pair of speakers sound gold, At a low level listening, I prefer quality sound over just loud anyway...

Then there's the wattage rating of the speaker (usually expressed as program, or continuous, sometimes also with peak ratings). You can always overdrive an amplifier into distortion, and the result is a speaker killer, as well as simply putting more power into a speaker than it's rated for.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 6
3/10/13 at 10:36pm
HTIB manufacturers always lie about the power numbers. The 900W might be total power including the sub but we may don't know how they measured it and for how long and what distortion levels.

Its safe to say the Akai AM 2800 is way more powerful than your Sony setup. when you blew the speakers within a week you should have taken it back.

At least you have something decent now.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Home Theater In A Box

AVS Top Picks

AVS › AVS Forum › Audio › Home Theater In A Box › So I bought this 900watt sony in a box and had some wattage questions..