I picked up an open box Denon AVR1705 last night. I have an old Sony DE-545 that the Denon will be replacing. The Sony believe it or not has been great up to this point. It's made it through 3 moves plus I have regularly pushed it pretty hard. Recently it started going into "Protect" mode after about an hour of usage or so. Hence, I picked up the Denon.
Last night I hooked everything up to the Denon. Ran through some sound tests and made sure each speaker was functioning properly (i have a 5.1 system). I then decided to turn up the volume a little to see how it sounded...turned it up to about -10 on a dial that goes from -70 to +15. It was only on -10 for about 30 seconds or so and i turned it back down to -40. About 10 seconds after turning it down the thing completely shut off. When i went to turn it back on i swear i saw a white flash. Now it comes on briefly and shuts itself off after a few seconds. There is no way to my way of thinking that -10 with all speakers set to small blew out the reciever.

Any opinions?

By the way my system is:
Mains: M60TI's
Surrounds: Bose Accoustimass 7 (don't laugh)
Sub: SVS PB10

Must be the Bose surrounds :-) sorry couldn't resist. That is a strange one, the only thing I can think of is a short in the speaker cables. dissconnect everything except the M60's see what happens. If it still does it try differnt cables going to the speakers, just a short run will do.

If it still does it, then maybe it's the receiver?

I was ruling out my speaker wire because just minutes earlier i had everything hooked up to my trusty Sony DE-545. Plus i went through the checks using a sound tester on one of the DVD's i own. The Denon was on for about an hour at low volume before it went *Poof*

Are you still using the woofer module? You can not directly connect the cubes to receiver.

Yes I was still using the bass module.

BTW. I thought about using my Acoustimass-7 as surrounds as well but went with QS8s. Much better. The Bose will go to the children.

The Bose surrounds are temporary. Once i finish my basement I will probably be investing in some QS4's. That is if i can get a reciever to last more then an hour!

Can you take Denon back to place of purchase?

The Denon circuitry is very sensitive, if you even have one stray wire touching the wrong polarity, it will shut down. I would recheck everything closely to make sure. Otherwise, it might be the receiver, not sure.

When you get to that point. Take a good look at the 8's. IMHO worth the difference.

As soon as you said "was working on the other receiver" the warning lights came on. The most common problem is shorting with a single strand when moving the wires at the back of the receiver... go disconnect everything, make absolutely sure there are no loose strands, and start up with just the mains. Heck, start with one speaker at a time.

EDIT

>>I was ruling out my speaker wire because just minutes earlier i had everything hooked up to my trusty Sony DE-545.

You also said that the Sony was shutting down every hour or so. Was this only when playing really loud or did it happen even at normal volumes ?

Definitely try just mains, then just surrounds etc...

Update...
Initially I did not notice but I realized that my right tweeter in my Axiom M60 was not functioning. I didn't notice this until after the Denon 1705 blew. I have two theories:
1. When the Denon blew (either manufacturer defect or shorted out because of a strand of speaker wire crossing on the reciever) took out the tweeter of my right M60Ti.

2. My right tweeter went out or was on its way out prior to even purchasing the Denon (could explain why the Sony was going into Protect mode). Could a burned out tweeter short-out a reciever?

To answer another question: The Sony only went into protect mode when playing at loud but not excessive volumes for 15 - 20 minutes or so.