How much power/channel for multi-channel amp?


First of all, thank you for reading my post. I have a fairly good Denon AVR 2802, which will be used as pre-amp. As for the surrounding speakers, I love those AR Phantom speakers. The handling power is from 50-250 watt with frequency response from 40Hz-20KHz. I am currently interested in a multi-channel amp. What is the handling power per channel do I need for a normal reasonable movie listening and viewing? Is 80 wpc a good recommendation? Is 100 wpc the standard? Is 200wpc the ideal? I like to take a poll to see what amp power do you have, and if it is more than what you need. My idealistic goal is to spend the money efficiently, i.e. to spend enough money for the power that I need -- not more not less but just right. Apparently, I won't blast the speakers even though they can handle it up to 250w. Besides, the I won't have enough money to acquire a 200wpc channel multichannel amp to test my speakers. Any comment will be truly appreciated.
lej1447

Showing 1 response by elevick

Funny, but I have a 2.1 also and really like it. $499.
You need to consider your room size and efficiency.
Keep this in mind:
86db, 1 watt
89db, 2 watts
92db, 4 watts
95db, 8 watts
98db, 16 watts
101db, 32 watts
104db, 64 watts
107db, 128 watts
110db, 256 watts THX levels
This is for an 86db efficiency speaker. If yours are different, do the math.
You need to double the wattage to increase volume by 3db
To double perceived volume, you need to increase 10db