In article ,
Ron Cook wrote:

Now, I will admit to being out of the technical end of the audio field for a
number of years, but are ratings no longer based on " xxx watts RMS per
channel @ 20 - 20,000 Hz @ .xx% THD" ?

Some are. Different vendors prefer to mention their consistent, whole
frequency power, and some prefer to mention their peak power at 1kHz.
For home-theater-in-a-box systems, the target market is generally less
informed, less interested in sound quality, and more interested in
loudness, so whatever games you can play to pump up the perceived
'thump' will help you move more boxes.

Looking at a couple of stand-alone receivers (no speakers included) found
the same type of rating.

Look at better receivers. At www.crutchfield.com, they track many specs
on receivers, including RMS power and the frequency range for which they
are rated at that power. They don't do that for home theater *systems*,
though.

Is it no longer a case of 'good specs' but rather 'how it sounds sitting on
the shelf at BestBuy' ?

I think it's still a matter of good specs, although some experimentation
is necessary to figure out what's good enough and what's pouring money
down the drain.

--
Matthew Weigel
the email address is real
the contents of the post are not