Hi everyone,first post, I've been reading this forum for a couple of years now, and find the suggestions/advice to be great! I'm s-l-o-w-l-y putting together a system,(have the 950 for starters)and I am ready for some amplification. Here's my question, I would like to get 3 M200's to power the fronts, but how much power do I need for the back speakers? Would using M200's also for the backs be overkill? Dependant on type of speakers? Thanks

It may be overkill, but I use the M200s for my Dynaudio 70s front and 122C Center as well as for the Paradigm Atom surrounds. My thinking was that I wanted to have equal amps for switching out if necessary, and should I upgrade my surrounds to better (or more hungry) speakers, I would still have the same amp. I have been very happy with my 5 M200s. Good luck!

I'm running 6 M200s, 3 for my LCR (Tyler Acoustice Talo Ref Monitors) and 3 for my RL, RR and single back channel (NHT Super Zeros). If I get into multichannel music I can pick up additional Ref Monitors and I will already be set from a amp perspective.

It really depends on the efficency of your speakers. Most surrounds only need about 20 watts or less to drive them. Remember they are fill for the movie and unless you have purchased some larger drivers for the surround channels or bipole/dipoles with alot of drivers, they are usually not power hungry. Besides the subwoofer, Centers are usually about 60% of the movie, 25% for the fronts and 15% for the surrounds.

Again it depends on your speakers...

It also depends on what you plan on using them for. If your surround speakers are for movies only then they probably don't require a lot of power, but for MC music, I would recommend treating them like a front/center speaker.

The first surround A/V receivers, at least my Sony and others I looked at the time, only had 20w going to the rears. Of coure, this is way before
things got to the point they are now. Later when I upgraded to a Onkyo Integra, it had 105w x 5.
I like having equal power to the surrounds, especially now that we have Dolby, DTS.
I would say another factor to consider, if you listen to DVD-A, you would want to have equal power to your surrounds. We listen to 5 channel
stereo a lot, it works for us.

True,

I am not into that, so it would be overkill for me.