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however, once in a while when I audition, people like to hear something cranked up a bit.



Did you buy the Emotiva for you or for people??

If it only shuts down when you play it louder than you'd ever listen to, I fail to see any real problem. The M80s can handle gobs of clean power, but clipped power can damage any speaker.

The choice is simple: If you can get over the fact that you can't successfully demo TEH AWESUM P0WER that the Emotiva is capable of (in the lab, at least), then keep it. If it'll eat at you constantly, return it.