Receivers and Wattage Ratings

While taking a certification today, I found out some interesting information about receivers. The most interesting part is the fact that I thought I knew this already. Well here goes ....

Frequency Response : The range of sounds a component can reproduce. This is measured in Hz (cycles per second). Naturally, a wider range (20 - 20,000) is better -- the bass will be lower and the treble will be higher. To sum it up, its basically how high or low can a component go. Another factor to consider is evenness. This is usually specified by the +/- porttion of the frequency response specification. Measured in decibels, it shows you how strong the components output will be across the range of sound it reproduces. A small variation in reproduced sound can be audible and significant, so the lower the number the better the component.

Amplifier Power
RMS vs Peak : RMS is an abbreviation for “root-mean-square”, and is a logarithmic average of all power circuits within the reveiver. This is also referred to as continuous power.
Peak, on the other hand, is just a raw total of all of the amplification circuits within the amplifier. In reality, it has no meaning. All it really shows is the complexity of the amplifying circuit. In general the higher the peak rating, the more complex the amplifier.
Although RMS is the most reliable rating, most manufacturers often advertise the peak power ratings to attract attention from unwary customers.