That was a stupid article.

At least mention that “All channels driven” vs “2 channels driven” is an important spec in power as well.

A receiver may be able to put out 100w of power with 2 channels of amps running, but run all 7 channels, and you’re probably getting about 60w.

That’s fair - it’s always tricky on how clear to make things.  Point is, every channel should be spec’d.  Either via “all channels"or individually

You could have briefly touched on the new surround formats as well. Mentioning that the future is DTS-HD MA, and Dolby DIgital TrueHD and how this is a feature you might spend the extra dollars on.

what a useless article setup solely to drive traffic from AVS Forum to here.  So sad that Electronic House is such a ##### to simply write junk articles to generate traffic from the industries largest forum.

hey Pete, hate to burst your obviously enormous ego, but AVS ain’t the Internet. there are other people around, some might even want to learn something about receivers. i know you’re an AV genius and all, but would it be alright if this site and others posted articles that are beneath your obviously superior intellect. now, go back to your mirror and stfu you conceded ####.

Tomlinson Holman designed THX, not George Lucas.  Also I don’t consider the certification that important.  Many people are very happy with their non-THX Denon receivers.

“(Note: Using a smaller load than specified for a receiver can damage it.)”
Don’t you mean a higher/larger load?

I enjoyed this article. Did it teach me everything I could ever want to know about Home Theater Receivers? No. But it taught me some things I didn’t know and gave me a good start.

“Pete” is one of those socially handicapped screwballs from the AVS forums. I was directed there once, and my god, what an awful place full of nasty, bickering people. Each one of them is of course an “expert” in the field who knows everything, but paradoxically all they do is fight with each other, pointing out how wrong the other guy is.

There are exceptions, of course, but I find the site incredibly annoying. I’d rather get good information in an enjoyable format than wade through flame wars to find posts from the few helpful members at AVS. 

And for the love of all that is holy, AVS, hire a damned designer!

re: Load

He means a lower impedence load.

Most amps are designed to deliver power into a nominal 8-ohm load. A lower impedence will encourage an amp to deliver more current. Only some amps can do this without damaging themselves (or clipping-and damaging speakers)

No speaker is a constant 8-ohm resisitive load—they vary depending on the frequencies delivered to them due to crossovers, resonances, drivers etc. An amp that can handle lower impedences will sound better and last longer…

Please do not judge AVS forum members solely by what has been portrayed here! There are a lot of outstanding, knowledgeable, and industry seasoned veterans who are members and are more than willing to delve out their knowledge. As you can see, sometimes you have to weed through the B.S. of some of the “angry” members to get answers that you are looking for. This is true with any forum on the Internet. Nonetheless, you would be hard pressed to find a group of individuals that have more knowledge of the A/V industry than what you would find at AVS.