That is one sweet design! I love that toroidal transformer on every module. And now that I see how it's built, I see that there are no connectors that can oxidize. I am green with envy. Like Randy said, this is most likely a manufacturing issue and you guys have nothing to worry about.

And here are some of my pics.

Why you guys are getting all worked up over decibel levels is baffling to me. That is irrelevant to what’s happening. The amps or part of the assembly is defective. Send them back or get your money back. If the amp is rated for a continuous 4 ohm load, and it shuts down driving a 4 ohm load, something is wrong with the speaker (short to ground), something is wrong with the amp, or the manufacture fudged their numbers. They should not be going into over current protection driving M80’s. Drivers are not some sort of mystical electron vacuum that sucks more current out of an amp that it is designed and rated to supply. They only draw available max current supply of the connected amplifier’s transformer, which your amps are not supplying without shutting down.

The simply fact that your Denon did not shut down should tell you something.

Not sure why you think we are getting worked up, we are simply using our findings to prove that we are not reaching the limits of the amps. Isn't that what AV people do?

If you read above, the company has already stated they realize there is an issue, that is why they have been working with me by next day shipping other amps to resolve my issue. I've talked to them on numerous occasions and am very impressed with their service.

Maybe God's just trying to tell you to save your money?

God and my wife have an agreement to get me interested in something different than AV.

Update: Well I worked with Emotiva today over the phone. For starters, they went out and purchased a Radio Shack Analog meter like mine. In their labs they use much higher quality test equipment, for example, "Audio Toolbox" meters. This way they could try to recreate what I was seeing on my meter.

Anyway, their initial findings was that the amp was truely meeting the specs of 300 watts into 4 ohms, in fact, it was actually reading 380 watts when the amp protection kicked in.

Another finding, was that the Radio Shack meter is great for calibration of speakers, but not really the best for lab test readings. During the dynamic parts of songs where the RS meter would jump from 110dB to 115 or 116dB, their more accurate Audio Toolbox meters were showing 20+dB jumps.

Now, the conversation moved onto the amps Wave Form Limiter? I really didn't understand what this does, but it sounds like this was the main reason the amps are shutting down. Emotiva mentioned the amps will do 780 watts RMS no problem, from past tests in the lab, however, I believe this Wave Form Limiter protection restricts what gets passed onto the speakers?

I talked to Axiom, and was told the 80's have been run for 2weeks straight at 24hrs a day at 700 watts continuous with peaks reaching 1100 watts, while testing the new amp line. So I know the Axioms can handle the wattage.

Resolution:

Emotiva showed me with very detailed instructions/pictures how to remove one of the resisters which gives the Wave Form Limiter its input signal. I"m not worried about making this modification, as I've worked a little on circuit boards/soldering, etc.. Basically it just involves removing this resister with some small snips, no problem.

The tests Emotiva did today, showed that with the amps being pushed very hard, they will produce just over 1KW. The Resistor being removed is where the Wave Form limiter gets it’s input signal from. Now by removing it, this will disable the limiter whereby making the amplifier like most amps on the market today. The amp is still a dual tracking class H design and the protection circuit is still in place, only the limiter has been disabled.

Without the limiter it is possible to get out peaks in excess of 1KW if pushed hard enough which would easily toast most speakers. I would not recommend this modification if your not having a problem, and would contact Emotiva if you are...

Randy

So ya gonna do it? It sounds like if all you're doing is testing the limits, well, you've found them! If you're going to listen to it at those levels, well, I'm going with the other guys who say you should probably take out the earplugs and turn it down.

Randy,

I have to admit that I don't understand how the waveform limiter caused the amp to shut down. But if that's what Emo says, then that's how it must be.

I suggest you ask Emo how distortion is affected when you remove the waveform limiter. The waveform limiter is very much like the dynamic range compression function on your Denon. When the rate of change of amplitude of the signal gets above a certain threshold, the limiter engages and reduces the amplifier's gain to prevent clipping of the waveform. So if you remove the limiter, you now run the risk of clipping the waveform. Clipping is bad as it introduces harmonics. These harmonics not only sound terrible but they can also fry tweeters.