FAQ

There is no universal answer. It depends on loudspeaker efficiency, room size, listening habits and the quality of the material. The new, lossless codecs from Dolby and DTS (Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio) are exact copies of the master recording and place the most stringent demands on the reproduction system. Even listening at an average power of a single watt can require over 100 watts per channel to cleanly reproduce peak signals

While there are a few receivers on the market that are actually capable of delivering 100 watts or more to each of the speakers in a system, most are not. Our recent review of the actual power output capability of a number of receivers as reported by Home Theater magazine revealed the following when all 7 channels were driven simultaneously:

•   A $2000 receiver capable of only 37.3 watts per channel
•   A $1000 receiver with actual power of only 30.2 watts per channel
•   A $749 receiver with only 38.9 watts per channel
•   A $599 receiver capable of only 30.9 watts per channel
•   A $440 receiver that delivered only 5.2 watts per channel

When used with speakers of typical efficiency (87 dB at 1 watt input measured at 1 meter distance), these receivers would not be able to satisfy our key criterion: unclipped, undistorted peak output when playing back the highest quality material from today’s best music and movies.

With no universal measurement and reporting standard in place, consumers clearly cannot rely on a manufacturer’s power specifications for AV receivers and amplifiers. ATI is different. All of our amplifiers are rated with all channels driven over the full bandwidth (20 Hz to 20 KHz) at vanishingly low distortion (<0.03%) into 8 ohms and will deliver at least 50 percent more power under the same conditions into 4 ohms.

For example, our AT4007, rated at 200 watts per channel from 20 Hz to 20 kHz with less than 0.03% distortion into 8 ohms with all 7 channels delivers over 220 watts per channel into 8 ohm and over 300 watts per channel into 4 ohms.

While all ATI amplifiers share the same basic specifications except for power output capability and the number of channels, our 4000 and 6000 Signature Series amplifiers have more advanced circuit topology we call Pure Balance. Essentially, Pure Balance offers two-complete amplifiers per channel. The benefits of this design are tremendous. It automatically rejects any noise coming from external sources, such as radio-frequency and electromagnetic interference. It eliminates hum and reduces distortion. Pure Balance also doubles the speed (slew rate) of the amplifier for better reproduction of high frequencies and better transient performance. Noise is also reduced by 50%.