# What is the real power consumption of the Pioneer VSX-921



## gvdwiele (Jan 5, 2012)

Dear all,

New to this forum, a happy newyear to everybody!
I'm thinking of buying the Pioneer VSX-921 but am worried about the rated power consumption, being 500 Watt.
A lot of the time, i'll simple be listening to the tuner through stereo speakers. Only rarely i would watch a movie at 5.1 surround. 
Does it always consume 500 Watt, sending up my electricity bill?
My current technics receiver consumes only 30-35 watt at normal stereo volume (i measured it myself) so 500 W would be an enormous increase.

Thanks to everybody who can respond to this.

regards
Geert


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## Ovation123 (Mar 6, 2011)

gvdwiele said:


> Dear all,
> 
> New to this forum, a happy newyear to everybody!
> I'm thinking of buying the Pioneer VSX-921 but am worried about the rated power consumption, being 500 Watt.
> ...


No. The receiver is capable of such output but it would rarely (likely never) reach that in real world use. In fact, when not in use, it is quite likely to draw far less power than your current receiver (though this is based on general trends towards lower consumption on standby--my new receiver is more powerful than my old one but consumes a lot less on standby).


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## gvdwiele (Jan 5, 2012)

Thanks for your reply, Ovation123.

Did you ever measure the real life power consumption of the receiver?
My current receiver btw consumes 0 Watt when not in use, because it's unplugged from mains with an extra switch ;-)
So 30-35 Watt is the draw when in use, just for the record.

regards
Geert


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## Anthony (Oct 5, 2006)

My Outlaw amp is rated for 200Wx5, which is technically 1000W.

However, I rarely see my current meter go above 1A more when listening, even at higher volumes. I usually only drive 4 speakers, though. The idle current of the amp is about 0.4A, so I'm looking at 50W to 100W of draw even though it is capable of much more.

My speakers are Magnepans and are very inefficient. More efficient speakers would draw even less!


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## Ovation123 (Mar 6, 2011)

gvdwiele said:


> Thanks for your reply, Ovation123.
> 
> Did you ever measure the real life power consumption of the receiver?
> My current receiver btw consumes 0 Watt when not in use, because it's unplugged from mains with an extra switch ;-)
> ...


My old one is about 40 watts on average in use--I expect the same with the new (same speakers). However, my old one on standby draws about 4 watts (last I measured). My new one is supposed to draw less than 0.3 watts on standby. Haven't installed it yet so I don't know for sure.


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