Saturn, Sushi & Haoleb,
Thanks, guys, for helping me out. Following your suggestions, I confirmed that my receiver was sick and I have taken it to a NAD technician to have it fixed. Meanwhile, I'm having the shakes from severe audio withdrawal symptoms. By the way, I tried plugging the lower ports with bungs but still prefer the sound without them as I have no problem with the bass at all.
NAD has always maintain a solid reputation for its stereo production and this becomes so painfully obvious when I listen to my music with a standby receiver.
Sigh.....
