Oh yes it's definately all about personal preference. In no way am I attempting to trash the Sherwood or any other reciever for that matter. As I pointed out up to somewhere between 50% and 70% of it's max volume the Sherwood gave me the exact same sound and performance than my other set-up that had many times the available power gave me. Therefore, anyone who listens to their music and or movies at those levels 100% of the time would be very happy with the unit. And as I mentioned in that post I'm sure the majority of the members on this board have no interest in maxing out the capabilities of their speakers. So in now way was I suggesting everyone needs an external amp.
But there are also others like me out there, that like to supercharge their home theaters. And that was my main point, that while recievers are for the most part identical in the way they reproduce sound, there are still differences between high end and low end recievers. Personally I would never drop more than say $1500 on a reciever. For one thing I've learned that as much as industry standards change in this area, recievers age very quickly (unfortunately). So it's hard to put much more than a thousand or so into something that may become obsolete in 5 or 6 years. I spent over $4000 on my speakers, but they will never become obsolete, I will enjoy them for decades, so I have no problem investing heavily in them.
