For a 13x15 room, is a 600W surround sound system enough?

Question

I'm fairly clueless when it comes to this, but I'm looking to get a fairly inexpensive surround sound system and have narrowed my choices down to a 600W Yamaha system or a 1000W Pioneer. My only issue w/ the Pioneer is it doesn't have very many inputs (only 1 optical). So, is 600W enough or should I bump up to the 1000W and suffer w/ only 1 input?

Answer 1

Wattage has no relevance. You want good sound. Watts do NOT tell you how good a system sounds. Watts do NOT tell you how loud a system plays. Watts do NOT tell you anything. I could play 100 watts through a system and get better sound and louder than any of the systems you listed because the wattage doesn't matter (Almost. If you are buying separates speakers you do want to make sure the receiver has enough power to push the speakers properly).

When trying to find a system you want to buy all you have to do is listen. If budget is your concern then find some systems in your price range and compare them BY EAR. You should be in control of the volume. Play all the systems at the volume you expect to play it at. Then increase the volume a bit more to see if you get some distortion. Then play it at low volumes to see if it sounds as good lower (This is often where cheaper systems fail which is why at BB  and CC they always crank it) Bring a full range sounding CD with you to test it out like current Jazz or something. The Eagles is good too.

Don't get caught up in the numbers unless you are looking at the right ones. Like customer satisfaction ratings. A machine that measures distortion or wattage or air displacement can't tell you if something sounds good. That is why there is no Soundsgood-o-meter.

Answer 2

600 should be fine and Yamaha makes some ok stuff. . It's not all about wattage my friend. Often quality is placed second to wattage so manufactures can cater to the masses that are easily taken by the wattage spec.The fact the Pioneer losses inputs but has higher wattage is a fine example of this. The speakers and what they are made up of will play a Huge factor as well. Bottom line though, I suspect the 600 watt Yamaha will serve you well.

   Good luck

Answer 3

Music systems are rated for audio power in many weird ways, and its often hard to judge just how powerful they are.

But a 13 x 15 room is not all that big, and 600 watts, even if the rating is in music power, should easily be enough.

Answer 4

600W system seems to be enough for a small room. But if the system is to move to a bigger room in future, it is definitely too small a power. I have a Pineer set which gave me very good power for sound. The one input can be connected to a spliter and a few source can be connected to it. No problem. But at any time only one source to be turned on.

Answer 5

Personally, I think it should be.  Granted, it will all depends on your personal usage habits, but with mine as an example, it is.  

If I were you, I'd go with the 1000W model, and get an adapter to allow for more input.  One of my systems only has one, and I've used an adapter before; they work fine.  You can go to a store like RadioShack, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc., and ask an associate for a splitter -- explain that you want to split an input line into multiple, and they'll help you find exactly what will work.

Keeping in mind the other features, if everything else is good, I'd go with the Pioneer.  

Just don't forget about the quality.  A friend of mine got a system that was 2k total watts, and paid a h**l of a price for it -- only to find that the system itself was a piece of c**p, regardless of wattage.  Having used both Yamaha and Pioneer products, while I acknowledge that they are both good, I prefer Pioneer when it comes to home audio, of the two you mentioned.  Check out CNET reviews -- they offer a lot of great insight on products for the way REAL people use them, rather than just how the tech experts look at things.