Steve - approximately how loud (SPL) are the peaks you're referring to before the M80s start distorting with your Denon? Clearly I haven't pushed mine hard enough if I haven't heard the clipping, but I just can't imagine listening much louder than I have (and I'm in a medium-small room like you are).
Jason
I did a quick test with SPL meter in hand awhile back checking for the dynamic range of the various tracks on The Planets, I found it to have about a 25 db range, so if this is representative of most classical music then the M80s at 80db for the low parts would have to hit 105 to cover the range and this could put the Denon into clip. Check the amp calculators out there and put in the 20-25 db range for the Dynamic range part, this takes the watts required to a whole other level, especially when the distance goes up.
I also wonder if the 3806 is as strong as the 3808 into 4 ohms? I know there are only 10watts difference into 8ohms in favor of the 3808. I haven't been able to find any actual lab tests of the 3806 to see if it is close the 3808's ~225Watts into 4 ohms.
