Hi FI advice

1norab

Hi, I want to buy my grandson a decent Hi Fi for his 18th Birthday. Could anyone explain the "Speakers watts" bit. Some Mini Systems have 20watts each whereas others have 65watts and even 100watts. Obviously this has to do with its loudness. But my dilemma is how loud does it get??
I want him to have a decent level as he will probably use it for his forthcoming party. But at the same time, I need to think of his parents/neighbours in future weeks/months.
So any advice on the above will be most welcome.

McAzrael

Where they are quoting watts for each speaker then they are quoting RMS, a realistic assessment of the output possible. Where they are quoting a combined figure, they are probably quoting combined peak output, a useless figure. The fact that they are quoting a useless figure which sounds quite fancy should tell you all you need to know about how proud they are of the RMS figure.

I would make sure that whatever you buy has an aux input. Kids don't have CDs any more, and will need to plug their iPods* in.


*Yes I know that only the ones made by Apple are iPods.

fwor

First thing to be aware is that - in audio terms - not all Watts of output power are the same!

Some manufacturers quote their output in misleading terms (e.g. 100Watts PMPO - which is probably equivalent to about 20Watts RMS). To compare like-for-like, you need to find out the output in Watts RMS into a given speaker impedance (8 ohms is the most commonly quoted).

For normal parties in your average house, 30Watts RMS per channel should be quite adequate and 50 or 60W is definitely enough to annoy the neighbours!

If he's likely to upgrade in future, would be worth considering buying separate components rather than an all-in-one system. Richer Sounds may be a good place to start, as they have some reasonably-priced system bundles.

1norab

Thanks, the claim is 2 x 20 RMS. Would this be loud enough for a decent house party for him and his friends/family members or should I look at higher RMS?

1norab

Sorry fwor, you replied as I typed my next question. Thank you.

1norab

Thank you both. most helpful