They study customers' willingness to pay for certain packages of features, combine those results with the imperatives of their long-term technology and new-product release schedules, and design products based on these results, and the vagaries of current prices of different metals. Many of today's manufacturers are owned by private corporations or private equity funds: dispassionate, financially-minded managers with a beady eye on the bottom-line. It's no conspiracy theory, just business. So how many watts do you need? Not as many as most of today's equipment manufacturers would have you believe, unfortunately. The best pieces are sometimes three or even four times more powerful-in terms of watts-than the least expensive gear. The higher in price you go, so go the watts. If you've been into a stereo or home theater (HT) store, you've probably heard that watts matter.
