Need basic advice...buying hi-fi

[KeithJ108]

Hi,

This might be a stupid question but hopefully somebody will have time to help me out.

I have an old hi-fi which I don't use very much but when i do the cd player doesnt work well.

My Question: When I went to buy a new (cheap) hi-fi I see stuff about power output (RMS) in watts. If I already have two perfectly good speakers and if i want to keep the same sound quality/volume does this rating matter to me if I wont be using the speakers that come with it?

In short: Is the power output (RMS) dependant on the hi-fi unit or the speakers?

Thanks,

[stuman]

its actualy a bit of both, if your looking at some specs (a detailed spec sheet that is) you should see for the speaker side of things an efficiancy rating, this is how much sound you would get from a certain amount of wattage you put through it, but that is from just lookin at spec sheets, in the real world there are far more factors like capacitor size and circuit topoligy changes that all effect the amount of power an amp can throw.

so to shorten things up a littlw go and have a listen.

hope that helps, if not then all i will add is if your going cheap then i would look at 20W abouve what you have now.