Is CEA-2006 compliant always necessary?

Question

I remember about 4 cars ago I had a Volfenhag ZX-8200 that I got from my friend for like $30 and it preformed excellently. I mean it supplied power to my subs; never got hot, never shut off after 3 hour road trips and never SOUNDED distorted (I don’t have an O-scope to check). So how is it TOTALLY c**p? I had it running two 8 ohm Digital Design 12” woofers 400 watts RMS 106 Db. These were DJ speakers and the boxes had gotten wet in a flood so I pulled the subs out and put them in a store bought sealed box. I gave the setup to my landscaper back in 2006 and he is still using it to day. I know that the speakers can take more watts but they work well with whatever amount of power you send the. They have even been hooked up to just an El-cheap-o receiver in the house and the worked. I do understand that the amp might not have done so well under conditions where it was pushed to its limits but in a situation like this how is it bad?

Answer 1

CEA-2006 is just a way to make sure that manufacturers' power specs are all following the same standard.  That way if you're comparing the power ratings of two amplifiers, you'll know that both are tested and rated the same way, if they're both CEA-2006 compliant.   It doesn't change anything about the way the amp is designed or built; just the way it's rated.