Signal to Noise ratio. . should I care? (1 Viewer)

[Kyle_Y]

I'm in the market for an A/V receiver. I noticed that as the receivers got more expensive, the the signal to noise ratio went up, I take it that this is a good thing. What is the signal to noise ratio, what does it mean, and should I be concerned with it?

 

[Saurav]

It means exactly what it says - it's the ratio of the signal level to noise level. It's one measure of how much noise the receiver adds when processing/amplifying a signal. Obviously, the higher the SNR, the better. How much does it matter? I wouldn't worry about it too much. This is IMO, but with receivers, you should narrow down your list based on features (formats, channels, power, etc.), and once you have a final list, try and listen to all of them. THD, SNR, and similar parameters are good to know, but they can often mislead you into buying something that looks good on paper, but sounds absolutely awful.