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You know, the Yamaha wpc "contreversy" concerned me as well in the begining yet Yamaha was still being recommended in various forums so I decided to listen to one.
What I found is that on the same speakers (PSB Alpha Intro Sat/Sub 6.1 package), all receivers being considered all produced similarly pleasing results. So, on the JBL's in question, I doubt you could tell the difference between 30 wpc's and 100 wpc's at normal listening volumes even during dramatic moments in a movie. The speakers would distort before the receivers would run out of "juice".
The latest Sound and Vision comparison test between the Yamaha RX-V440 (note, 440 is not a typo) vs the Onkyo 501 concluded that these two recievers were equally matched even though the Yamaha was tested at 34 wpc and the Onkyo 501 tested at 77 wpc for 1 whole second and then stepped down to 47 wpc. Both recievers produced the same "loundness" and the Yamaha produced less distortion! One can only surmise that the Yamaha RX-V540 and RX-V640 would produce better wpc ratings in the range of 35-45 wpc? Comparable to the H/K in question which is what my ears confirmed when listening to half a dozen different receivers.
So, with that said, does 10 wpc make a difference? Nah, not on Sat/Sub system. Should you want to upgrade your speakers to larger, more power hungry ones, I'd suggest that all these recievers would perform as well and fail at the same point.
Conclusion: Yamaha, Onkyo, H/K, Denon, all make a good product and if the H/K had "zone2/B" speakers outputs, it would probably still be on my shortlist.
JB
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